A Different Genealogy: Decisions & Dogmas
by Natarii-loves-Chocolate-milk
Summary: No matter how much she stomped on it, caged it away, a tiny part of her was listening to him."You'll do what I say because you know that you can't pass up an opportunity to save him" he murmered. Naruto's made a deal with the devil. SasuFemNaru, ItaIno.
1. Act I: Whacko Returns

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS  
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ACT II: SCENE I

**~ WHACKO RETURNS ~**

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_The door slammed open to emptiness. Ino gave the room a quick once over with her eyes, not daring to try looking for the boy's consciousness after her last disastrous attempt. Seeing it was truly empty, she whiled from the doorway growling in frustration. On the other side of the dark corridor, Kakashi was busy searching an identical room._

"_He's not in there!" she informed the grey haired Jonin behind her as she darted further down the corridor.  
_"_Nor this one" he replied despondently from the other side of the hallway._

_The door was slammed shut and footsteps echoed down the dank, dark hallways at a rapid pace. They were so close now! So close, he was somewhere in this underground labyrinth, Ino had confirmed. All that was left to find him. God, if this was another dead end she didn't know what she was going to do with Naruto._

"_You're sure he won't be with the other test subjects? Ino asked, picking up her pace as they twisted around a corner._

_Searching these underground cells - seemingly for test subjects - was proving unyielding with results, but Itachi hadn't been eager to explore the cells that held Orochimaru's test subjects. _

_Ino was certain he would be in a cell of his own further underground with a mind like the one she had sensed earlier, but that posed another problem in and off itself; all these damn corridors looked the same, and she had yet to come across anything resembling stairs, or even a ladder._

"_I don't know, Itachi wasn't to eager to go down there, but… lets just keep looking up here for now" the copy-cat said , trying to placate his blonde companion._

_Ino growled and skidded to a halt in front of another door._

_

* * *

_

_Down another hallway another blonde slammed open another door; a glance with swirling red eyes told her that no-one with an iota of chakra was inside it. Naruto swore and hastened down the halls once again, searching for the next door. A boy with short black hair and another Jonin with equally dark hair in a low ponytail ran behind her._

"_Where the hell is he?" she growled._

g_Naruto calm down; we'll find him. Orochimaru wouldn't let the source wander around by his own free will" Itachi soothed, though the noticeable grit of his teeth showed his own frustration._

_"Kakashi-Sempai would have sent word if he or Ino had found something" Sai stated in a business manner._

"_Not until were certain Sai; those cells are… going through Orochimaru's criminal file back in Konoha was one of the few times I've been chilled to the bone. Some of the things we're likely to find there are nothing short of monstrous." _

_Itachi shuddered at the memory of certain photos that had been taken of the man's lab directly after defection._

"_You think I don't know about monstrous Itachi? If you don't I can show you some of the dreams the Sharingan gives me! Go ahead! You can use Tsukiyomi right now!" Naruto hissed, skidding to a halt._

_The corridor veered in two different directions. Itachi turned his gaze onto Naruto with his Sharingan spinning angrily. Sai, having only recently even broached the realm of psychology called emotion, was somewhat uncomfortable with the expressions on their faces._

_I'll just… go this way…" he informed them warily, taking off and dashing down the hallways at full speed._

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* * *

_

"_That's irrelevant Naruto" Itachi growled calmly._

"_In what way? I almost killed him, I almost killed Ino, and I could do the same to you Itachi! Unlike you, I remember everything! Every single detail, and that's far worse than anything Orochimaru can do!" Naruto hissed._

Itachi wanted to argue aginst that since there was one thing Orochimaru had done that was, if he was honest, worse than anything else the man could dish out but something told him that naruto wouldnt be willing to listen to that right now.

"_You're making too much out of this! I've seen those experiments before, and I threw up before taking two steps into the room! There's monstrous, then there's emotional, and then there's Orochimaru Naruto" Itachi hissed, anger rising in his voice to a level of evidence._

"_And you're underestimating me Itachi! Sasuke is counting on us to find this guy, and I'll be damned if you get in my way! I don't care if you're my brother Itachi; you're not going to stop me!" Naruto snarled, her eyes slitted._

_A match of glares erupted between the two and two varieties of red eyes glared. Naruto was certain the Kyuubi was being agitated by the Sharingan; it was easier to pull on it's chakra for some reason. _

_Itachi sighed._

"_This is getting us nowhere, lets just… put this aside for now, and keep looking up here" he suggested, recognizing a stalemate when he saw one._

_Naruto gave a short, reluctant nod, and they took off down the remaining corridor._

_

* * *

_

_Another door, another, another, another, and another, but still nothing! The fury grew insider her, and a pricking sensation flooded her; she stomped down on the voraciously violent chakra, turning down another hallway. Controlling the Kyuubi was taking more effort than it usually did; the old pervert should never have tampered with the seal._

_Naruto slammed open another door and gave a howl of frustration, crashing her fist into the wall as Itachi caught up behind her; he caught up in time to see a blast of the ominous red chakra shoot out of her hands and his eyes widened in alarm.__Naruto stared at her hands seemingly unsurprised for a few moments before the sounds of explosions reached her ears._

_It echoed and rumbled throughout the entire underground maze. Naruto strained her ears as she darted from the room. The sound of rubble, of Ino's voice, was coming from one of the unseen corridors. Pausing several times to get a better sense of direction, she finally found a passageway that showed signs of recent destruction._

_Naruto sped down towards the destruction with Itachi snapping at her heels._

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* * *

_

_Sai was already there, his Tanto drawn at a faceless enemy when Ino finally came across the destruction riddled corridor and found the wall-collapsed room he stood in; she gritted her teeth in frustration. After everything, was he still going to betray them? Oh, she couldn't wait to get the first socking punch on him if he had. He'd been asking for it since they'd first met!_

"_What the hell is going on? You'd better have a god-damn good excuse Sai!" she demanded, bursting into the light.  
__"He's up there!" Sai pointed in the direction he was facing._

_Turning to see for herself, Ino could clearly see the pile of rubble that had fallen from the roof - the light came from a small hole in the roof where the rubble had originated. Sitting atop the rubble was the boy they had spent the last two months crashing through Orochimaru's bases in search of. _

_Giving a tentative push from her frontal lobe with her chakra she tried to get a shot glimpse of his consciousness. The pain that it sent through her forehead was reminiscent of her prototype brain boost juice - it was like listening to the static on a coms-device, only amplifies and in the form of rampant thoughts instead of crackling, fuzzy sound. _

_In another hallway the interaction had not gone unnoticed by the second Jonin; he didn't even bother to restrain the girl beside him and ran with just as much speed, though with a comparatively less vocal demeanour. Their gaze followed that of the squad-mates (as five people could hardly be considered a three-man-team) and dozens of responses flooded their expressions, the younger of the two the more expressive than any of her squad-mates so far._

_Bi-Polar Juugo, we've been looking for you!" Naruto growled, eyes changing to a lighter shade of red and her irises spinning slowly._

_

* * *

_

During the three years of her absence, Itachi truly wished his youngest sibling was around to shed some light on the course Ino's mind was taking. Other than the daily training she received from Tsunade (working alongside _Kiba_ of all people), she had her own training routine that was privy to no-one but herself (he didn't even know _where_ she trained), the mastery of her clan techniques mixed with clan-running 101 from her father, interrogation lessons from Ibiki and Anko, missions with her brother's team…

It was a wonder where she found the energy to do all this and have one free afternoon a week to meet up and discuss things. The only thing Ino _hadn't_ accomplished was the promotion to Chunin; she had refused the exams stating that until both her team-mates were back in Konoha, she wouldn't set a pen anywhere near a registration form, despite being Chunin in everything but official rank.

Itachi found himself swamped with ANBU missions and the running of his own clan (significantly lower in number thanks to the Suna-Oto invasion, but still enough to take up a fair amount of his time).

He was glad Shisui had agreed to take over the police department, because he had absolutely no time for it. He was planning on handing in his resignation to the ANBU fairly soon just to get some time to himself.

Yet Ino, who was doing just as much as him and then some (oh yes, he knew about her sneaks out of the village to nose up information on Orochimaru), was still finding time to test his self control.

Back before all the madness started, as he liked to generically refer to past events as, her Genin crush had been of no consequence. He hadn't realised it till a few weeks after she started training with Tsunade, but he had _eventually_ picked up on it.

He been uncertain if his father would have been relieved his hormones had finally kicked in, or torn out his hair in frustration for reasons known only to himself, but in either case the childhood crush had not worried him. Why should it? He had been nearing nineteen at the time, and Ino had only passed her thirteenth birthday a few months before graduating - that sort of thing was called paedophilia in the legal system.

Sixteen year old Ino, however, was a different matter. She had obviously just been biding her time, because she hadn't made any _direct_ moves towards him during the past three and a bit years other than a few hugs during celebratory occasions - and a few not so celebratory ones, such as the death of her mother on a mission in Earth country.

Then, once she'd attained all the legal requirements that could have hindered her by reaching sixteen and becoming a legal adult in the court system (which was different from the ninja system), her main aim in life had been to drive him to near insanity.

He'd never understood why his father hated the idea of hormones so much before the madness, but now… He sympathised with the man. He truly did; he didn't know how the minutest of movements could make his eyes wander to places he'd rather they not wander to.

Take now for instance; he was seated across from Ino at one of the new tables at the Ramen stand. Ino had gobbled down a dish of cold seasoned noodle-broth (a new addition by his old team-mate he was wary to try), having arrived from a practice session with Tsunade in the hospital's poison lab. After that she had proceeded to release the first few buttons of her short purple top.

"What are you doing? You're in public you know…" he informed her warily, expertly disguising the panic in his voice as nonchalance.

"Hey, those labs are stuffy! And I'm not taking the whole thing off, Perv!" she replied, a certain degree of weariness in her voice as she mentioned her work in the hospital.

If he knew which female ninja had decided wrapping their breasts with bandages was a good idea, he would personally hunt them hunt the down and give them a lecture on all the reasons why they were the exact opposite. He couldn't help but give the wrappings on Ino's own a critical eye; did they really hold any use at all? They didn't seem to hold anything down, at least not for Ino…

He scolded himself and turned back to his bowl of noodles; why couldn't Ino have stayed a nice little thirteen year old with a twisted sense of humour? The sixteen year old version hadn't been looking like they typical friend recently - why did she have his sense of humour? Probably from seeing Ibiki so much as a kid, it was where his came from (_nobody_ escaped from that man unscathed).

Either way, their common personality traits were sending his brain messages different to the old thoughts of _'my brother's amusing team-mate'_ nowadays, which he found that uncomfortable. Mainly because… he just did. He had no excuse (though if anyone asked he would make some codswallop about age-gaps), and that worried him. No excuse probably meant he wasn't as opposed as he silently convinced himself he was.

"Itachi! Ino!"

The two were distracted by the sound of Kiba's voice as he jogged over to their table at a rapid pace, barely pausing to catch his breath upon reaching them. His giant hound came trotting up behind him and Ino was certain it would be chastising his partner for running of behind him had he mastered the basic human language that Kidomaru (Tsume's one-eared partner) had.

"What is it Kiba? You look excited… Did Hinata finally say yes? I told you the daises would work! What took you so long?" Ino asked, eyes glinting at the prospect of another successful Ino-enhanced matching.

"What? Hinata? No! The gate! You've gotta go to the gate! The gate!" he shook his head profusely with a hint of red staining his tattooed-cheeks, and Ino's face fell into a point.

"Why do we need to visit the gate?" Itachi asked, deciding it would be best to get right to the point."Because… wait, didn't Ino notice?" Kiba asked in confusion, turning back to the blonde.

"Notice what?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Kiba stared at her before his face broke into a teasing grin.

"Concentrate on all the people in the village; who sticks out? Akamaru picked up their scent ages ago!" he gloated, pleased to be ahead of her on the gossip front for once.

Though not particularly close during their academy and Genin days, working under their temperamental - and often tipsy - Hokage for three years had created a friendly rivalry between the two; apparently Kiba had as much a nose for gossip as Ino, but he never quite managed to beat her to some of the juicer titbits - the advantage of a mentally linked clan was a large one he had yet to counter

Ino frowned in confusion, but decided to humour him and closed her eyes, connecting her mind to the collective consciousness of Konoha's citizens. All she had to do was concentrate on their chakra and an awareness of each inhabitant flooded her mind. Discerning them was a task, but was manageable.

She presumed Kiba was referring to a member the military population, and filtered out all the civilians to concentrate on the ninja ranks: _'Kakashi… Sakura… Uwah, that's Shino all right…'_

She jittered upon moving past Shino's awareness - Aburames were always a little odd thanks to all the bugs. She moved through all the ninja not finding anyone that should jump out by the northern gate. Not wanting to be out done by Kiba, she turned her direction towards the west main gate.

'_Kotetsu and Izumo… Tsunade-sama… Wait, Tsunade?'_

Ino pulled her thin waves of chakra back to her mentor in confusion.  
'_All right, why isn't she in the office? Shizune is going to pitch a- Wait, Shizune's there too? Why isn't she-'_

Ino's jaw dropped open when the delicate pulses of chakra came into contact wit two other consciousnesses. She turned to Kiba, mouth still gaping wide. His smug grin answered her silent question and she bolted from her seat, catching and dragging Itachi by the arm as she did so.

"T-The gate! We have to get to the gate!" she blurted, dodging the alarmed walkers they flew past in her haste and ignoring Kiba's barking laughter.

* * *

"Hiya bandage-face!" Naruto crowed cheerily, waving to her old academy teacher as the passed by the visitor watch station.

Kotetsu looked up from the game of Shogi he was playing with Izumo at the sound of her voice, and a look somewhere between alarm and cheer crossed his face. Naruto grinned at the residual effect her academy days had instilled in the man, and dashed ahead of her teacher, ignoring his sigh of exasperation.

Deciding to let loose, she darted up a telephone pole, her restored bunches flipping in the wind around her face at the top. She let loose a loud enthusiastic yell, taking in the long-missed scenery. She snickered at the new stone face on the mountain, before she was distracted by a loud bark and a yell from below.

"Oi, Blondie! Get down here and say hello properly you dolt!"

She turned her head, and jumped down to talk properly greet her old classmate. Before she hit the ground she squashed herself onto Kiba, knocking him off of the back of his large dog (what kind of vitamins had they been feeding that little puppy?).

"Kiibaaaa! You missed me!" she teased, releasing him enough for the boy to stand and brush the dust from his clothes.

"Yeah sure, don't disappear like that without leaving Ino a note or something again! She nearly destroyed the ICU when she found out you were gone!" he berated, bopping her on the head, noting he had to reach a fair bit higher than he used to.

"Oh wow! The mutt knows new acronyms! Do you know what it means though, that's the real question!" she replied grinning at the twitch of his jaw.

"Of course I do! I learned medic stuff while you were gone! Ino too, but Ino's obsessed. She got the crazy strength too, I never quite got the hang of that…" he trailed off, wincing at the memory of his training; Tsunade's lessons were best described by the words _'doge of death'_.

"Speaking of Piggy, where is she? I figured she'd have been her before I got through the gate…" Naruto mused, toying with the sleeve of her orange dress.

The top third or so and sleeves were short and black, as was a short band of fabric on the hem, and perhaps half an inch on either side of the zip. Underneath was a short mesh bodysuit and black cropped sleeveless vest - hidden by the zip, and on her feet a pair of heeled boots, more mesh poking to just below her knees from beneath them.

"Hmm… probably with Itachi, what the hell is that thing for? It's made of that chakra metal right? That must have cost a fortune!" he gawked gesturing to the enlarged shuriken that hung against her back with a shoulder chain.

Naruto gave it a glance before turning back to Kiba with a grin

"Secret mutt! Now what's this about Ino and my bro- and Itachi…" she cursed her almost-slip of the tongue internally, thankfully Kiba didn't seem to notice.

"They meet up to taken every once in awhile; it's not a date but it might as well be for all the attention they give anyone else" he explained.

"I see…"  
"Why don't you go get them Kiba? Itachi is probably beginning to panic anyway, and you know how those two get" a new voice suggested.

Naruto turned to find the Hokage herself and her assistant closing the increasingly short distance between them.

"Tsunade-Sensei, Shizune-Sempai! Err, I mean, yes Ma'am!" Kiba replied, giving a mock salute to the blonde woman before hurrying down the street with his faithful canine companion.

"Sensei?" Naruto asked, surprised even though Kiba had already mentioned his medical training.

"He's rather competent; nowhere near Ino's level in the field, but put him in an operating theatre and he's a brilliant surgeon. I think that's his sister's influence with the veterinary clinic; his mother was more of a field medic during the war…" Tsunade mused, bopping Naruto on the head.

"Good to see you brat" Tsunade greeted, squashing Naruto as she hugged her.  
"You too, but seriously, Kiba is a medic? Kiba?" she asked, still not believing the facts.

"Ino's father inspired him; Tsume never endorsed medical techniques to him much, but Inochi was the one who healed him and kept him alive till the medic team could arrive after the res-" Jiraiya clamped a hand over her moth before she could finish her sentence.

"Don't say it!" he hissed, keeping a beady eye on Naruto who was being given an edited version of events by the quick-witted Shizune."What?" Tsunade asked in confusion, pulling his hand from her mouth.

"Don't mention the mission! She'll turn into a useless plied of depressed orange mush! I tried using it for motivation, but she ended up walking around in a daze for the whole day!" he hissed.

Tsunade had a brief recollection of the same thing happening with Ino, and to a lesser extent Kiba (he still held some partial feelings of guilt for not doing more to help), during her own lessons.

"I think I know what you mea-"  
"Come on Itachi you slow poke! Move your ass! Are you a _Genin?_ Move! Move! Move!" Ino's voice echoed throughout the street, before the purple-clad Yamanaka appeared on the corner, dragging a rumpled looking Itachi behind her.

Ino finally released Itachi upon sight of the orange and yellow figure, and sped towards her, ponytail flying behind her. She crashed into her long-gone friend in much the same manner Naruto had Kiba, landing in a purple, orange and blonde tangle on the street.

"Don't you _dare_ leave like that again!" Ino yelled angrily, shaking Naruto's shoulders enthusiastically to get her point across.  
"I'm sorry, but I sent you a peace offering! Did you get it?" Naruto asked, recovering from the shaking and raising an eyebrow.

Ino's face melted into a blissful grin and she glued herself to her friend, knocking her back to the street once again, yelling apologies and thanks for the unknown truce gift. Itachi let Ino have her moment before moving to greet his sister himself. Ino finally let up, catching his approach from the corner of her eye and pulling Naruto up with one hand.

Itachi notes the four pointed star on her back briefly before tapping her forehead in much the same way he once had with a younger Sasuke.

"Good to see you again" he greeted; Naruto twitched.

"I see I have work to do with you; you're even more closed up than before I left Itachi! Why can't you just gimmie a hug like normal people?" she asked with a visible twitch in her eye.

Before Itachi could answer she'd jumped the small distance necessary to reach his shoulders and greet him in what she deemed as the proper fashion… The usually placid man was taken aback for a few long moments before giving an awkward, but equally sincere one armed hug, doing his best to avoid the giant metal weapon strapped to her back.

"Welcome back Naruto" he mumbled, slightly embarrassed by such a blatant display of emotion.

* * *

"Sasuke! Look! The snake bastard's leaving!" Suigetsu hissed in a bubbling voice, water muffling the sound made by his vocal chords.

Sasuke looked up from the cleaning of his Katana to see that Suigetsu - his fellow prisoner, albeit of a slightly different kind - was indeed correct. Orochimaru passed by the entrance to the water-lab in that weird black red-cloud spotted cloak of his.

He'd been forced along on one of these outings when the seal that kept him trapped in Otogakure was still being tweaked (it had worked, but not enough for Orochimaru's standards), and had heard enough snippets of their conversations (no to mention other enlightening moments) to know what the Akatsuki were planning; demon extraction.

The slithery man gave him one of those sickening soft smiles as he passed: _'you may know what we do, but what can you do to stop me?'_ it said, and it made Sasuke's blood boil.

"I _hate_ that look" Suigetsu bubbled from his watery prison."Overhear anything on how long he'll he long?" Sasuke asked, settling back to furiously removing the dirt from his long blade.

"Err…"

Suigetsu scratched his head with a watery hand.

"Ah! I heard something about a Raccoon when that red-head was here the other week, but I didn't really get it… Sasuke, hey what's wrong with you now? Ya' look as pale as that snake creep!" Suigetsu report took on a worried tone as Sasuke froze his furious scrubbing.

"Oi, tree-hugger, what the hell?" Suigetsu asked again, using the strange nick name he had dubbed the boy with.

Sasuke broke out of his statuesque state wit his Sharingan blazing angrily.

"That raccoon is the One-Tailed Tanuki! Gaara holds the Tanuki! That's the first of the demons they want to extract! They've started searching for the Jinchuriki!" Sasuke hissed.

Suigetsu's mouth opened into an 'O'.

"Ah, that explains why you look like you want to kill something more excessively than usual - isn't your girl one of them? Or was it your sister?" Suigetsu's watery hand scratched his head as he attempted to remember which one had been mentioned.

"She's the host of the nine-tailed fox," Sasuke stated, clasping the mark on his neck Naruto had attempted to destroy with her Rasengan.

The gaping wound had been healed, but the cursed seal had grown back with it. There was a scar where the new flesh skin and bone met old, and his fingernails dug into the skin. If he thought it would do him any good he would tear it off his skin with his own nails.

It wouldn't do any good though - Naruto had proved that. He had tried escaping only once before, but it had been enough to tell him that he wasn't getting away from Orochimaru unless someone came with a rescue party, or Orochimaru died.

He'd managed to get past the guards and five miles away from the dank and gloomy base before a shooting pain crackled through his head, shutting off all the movement of his limbs. Unlike the sound fives' seals, he had an extra formula that reacted whenever he travelled too far from whichever base he was being imprisoned in, or from Orochimaru himself.

Having flunked out of his sealing class in the academy (miserably), and no books on-hand to instruct him in the subject (Orochimaru allowed him to train, but Sasuke's hopes for a fatal blunder had been dashed), that meant he was stuck.

It didn't help that every time he was moved, the seal knocked him out till they had arrived at the new hideout. He knew the bases by name, but by location? He could be in the middle of Earth Country and five miles from _Iwagakure_ for all he knew. He had a few glimpses of scenery to go on, but that was hardly satisfactory.

In this situation he had decided to train with the goal of skinning the man's scaly hide. He was certain Naruto, Ino, and Itachi were searching for him, but he couldn't count on them finding him when his prison was changed so constantly, nor that they would be able to counteract the cursed seal. His best bet for escape was to get rid of Orochimaru.

It sounded so easy in his head…

"Hey, so which one is it? You girlfriend or your sister?" Suigetsu asked, jerking him back to their conversation.

Sasuke, having received the news he had, was feeling in a particularly venomous mood.

_"Both." _he stated, before sheathing his Katana into the strap on his back and leaving the lab, ignoring Suigetsu's gurgled demands for an explanation instead of crypticness.

Orochimaru had tried foisting those ugly sound robes and purple ropes on him, but Sasuke had pointedly torched them before even touching them.

Instead he wore a mesh shirt underneath a baggy black short-sleeved zip-shirt with a high collar and his clan symbol stitched onto the back and a pair of white trousers (nostalgia to his white shorts that he had long since grown out of) tucked into more mesh, and a pair of sandals and his Konoha headband secured on his arm with chakra in case some idiot tried to remove it.

The only things he had accepted (_very_ grudgingly) from the renegade Sanin were his arm guards and his sword - which was permanently secured on his back over one shoulder, the metal chain securing it running across his front.

He made his way through the dark halls towards his room. After checking to make sure there were none of Orochimaru's pesky snake summons lying around to spy on him, he kicked back a dirty rug and removed a few of the loose floor tiles.

His secret compartment was somewhat juvenile, but the ninja around him would be expecting any hidden objects to be hidden under illusions - it was the obvious solution, and something as childish as rug-covered loose-tiles would be deemed a stupid idea.

It had worked so far; the seemingly harmless figurines and emergency communication scroll were still untouched. He picked up one of the small ornaments - a miniature peregrine falcon - and carefully hid it in one of his inside pockets before hiding the rest of the objects.

If he knew Naruto - and he did - then she would no doubt be part of the party sent to Gaara's aid if he were to be captured. He'd heard of the boy's promotion and was pleasantly surprised; if someone who'd been alienated just as badly, if not worse, as Naruto could become the leader of Wind country's military at their age, then it meant Naruto could do the same.

That was not the problem though - if Naruto went to the Akatsuki to help Gaara, then it wouldn't just be her life on the line. He needed to warn the only person who had any chance of keeping her from getting herself killed.

It was with this intention that he prowled the halls in search of a window, not wishing to use the heavily watched doorway unless absolutely necessary.

* * *

Kakashi dodged past trees as he was relentlessly pursued by his two female Genin. After a small blunder with the mention of Sasuke's name (_'Note: never ever mention Sasuke unless absolutely necessary, or unless they mention him first'_), the test had begun.

He'd been aware of Ino's training under the Hokage (and just about everywhere else for that matter), but knowing of her chakra enhanced strength was one thing. Experiencing it was quite a different matter; the destruction of the earth around him had been one of the few heart-stopping moments in his life, and Kakashi seriously hoped Itachi had better sense than to get the blonde girl mad.

Fortunately he had a few tricks of his own. His water techniques and a fireball that rivalled Itachi's had punctured their confidence; Naruto seemed to have improved her use of the Sharingan in close combat, but he had much more experience with Obito's than she had with her own, and experience had triumphed over DNA. He was sure Itachi would rectify that after watching though.

He kept the attack at a rapid pace with various elemental techniques, rapid hand seals, and superior tactical skills as the two kept up their defensive assault. Ino seemed to have improved her chakra reserves drastically if her use of shadow clones was anything to go by; she easily had the same amount as Naruto did without the Kyuubi's influence.

Her work with Ibiki was showing too; some of the illusions she trapped him in despite his Sharingan were positively grotesque. Though much to her irritation, he did not remain still long enough for her to execute her clan's famed mind-transfer technique (he knew better than to remain still when facing a Yamanaka).

Naruto had shown her improved use of her own clones, and seemed to have finally mastered the Rasengan with one hand, but he had yet to see anything new from her; the large shuriken remained ominously affixed to her back. He assumed that the material it was forged from meant she had mastered one of the elemental natures, but he didn't know which one that was.

She and Sasuke had both used small fireball techniques back before the _'madness' _started - quoth Itachi - but those same techniques were equally open to other Genin, and didn't necessarily mean they possessed the fire element. Naruto's mother had preferred to use earth rather than fire, and her father had used wind and lightning.

With so many possibilities, he wouldn't be surprised if she defied traditional family genetics with chakra natures and used water instead; Naruto simply loved to throw a wrench in plans and tradition after all.

He was jerked from his musings by the sudden appearance of the two Genin; Naruto had finally pulled out the large shuriken, and was swinging it around her head on a chain, gathering momentum. Behind him were two identical blonde mind-readers, fists gathering chakra.

He dodged the blows from the two, leaping onto one of the soaring pieces of fractured earth generated from the impact of… where was Ino? Shit! Had they been shadow clones? He had no time to ponder the possibly as Naruto finally let fling the shuriken; it was released from the chain in a wide ark, soaring past him with a whistle of air before returning to the blonde girl who caught it with practised ease and replaced it on her back.

Why was she putting it away? She had missed- Kakashi caught sight of the ground the lump of earth he stood on fell downwards in horror and cursed; the ground was burning with thick red flames, and the scarlet heat showed no visible pathways out; oh well, at least they'd listened when he said to attack with killer intent - this was certainly life threatening.

He forced his largely diminished chakra reserves to coat his skin, acting as a protective layer against the flames as the large lump of dirt landed on the flames with a thud. Smoke clogged his eyes as he fought to generate a water technique with the dry humidity.

'_Damn it there's no water in the air!'_ he growled mentally. He didn't dare take a step from the lump of earth that was beginning to smoulder - his chakra acted as a protective layer, but it couldn't stand up to direct flames. He looked up and considered the chances of jumping-

"Fireball technique!" two voices yelled simultaneously, and the previously manageable flames soared to humanly unreachable heights.

He decided to find out why Ino was using fire techniques later on; right now his vision was getting a bit fuzzy, and oxygen was becoming an issue.

"Mudbath technique!" Ino's voice yelled distantly from behind the crackling flames.

A swill of mud rose like a tsunami and engulfed the flames, and smoke billowed from the sopping soil substance. Before he could regain too many bearings Naruto descended upon him with her fists primed; Kakashi's eyes widened at the gathering chakra in them, thinking himself to be seeing things.

Thinking it better to be safe than sorry, he dodged the impending blow, and was horrified to find his hallucinations had been correct; the earth he had previously been standing on crumbled to dust upon the impact of Naruto's fists.

'_W-Why is Naruto using Tsunade's strength techniques? Did she copy it with the Sharingan? No, it takes training and superior chakra control to use Tsunade's strength that Naruto just doesn't have, and Naruto wouldn't copy Ino's techniques without permission; she probably wouldn't want to copy them in the first place, so how-'_

He was cut off by a near-miss from a Rasengan, coming from the owner of the strength Naruto had just displayed.

'…_I'm lost! They aren't using transformations, I'd be able to see the chakra, but even with Ino's chakra control she wouldn't be able to master the Rasengan that quickly! What on earth is this?'_

He dodged simultaneous devastating blows from Naruto and Ino, and for the first time he got a good look at their appearances.

_"Oh dear god, what on earth have we unleashed?" _he whimpered silently as the two girls formed Rasengan of identical size and force.

"Jiraiya did you teach Naruto how to use my strength techniques?" Tsunade asked in bafflement as Naruto created yet another crater in the earth.

"No… I'm guessing you didn't teach Ino the Rasengan then?" he replied as Kakashi dodged a hail of flaming, normal-sized shuriken.

They turned to look at Itachi with a questioning gaze.

"What?"  
"You do have the Sharingan Itachi, it wouldn't be a surpri-"  
"No, besides when was I supposed have trained either of them?" he asked, cutting the woman off mid-sentence, seemingly irritate by the assumption.

Akamaru barked to his owner and Kiba raised an eyebrow.  
"I agree, getting into their bad books would be a health hazard" he snickered.

The rest of the viewers chuckled. They continued to watch the exchange, Itachi's eyes spinning furiously in an attempt to discern how the two used personally-impossible techniques with apparent ease. The match came to an abrupt end when Kakashi covered his eyes and ears, and the two girls easily retrieved their bells.

* * *

"Deidara, hurry up!" Sasori snapped.

"Keep your hair on! I'm coming, yeah!" the blonde replied irritably, picking himself up from the ground he had been trying to catch an extra thirty winks of sleep on.

"In case you didn't notice, Deidara, we have a Jinchuriki to catch!"  
"You make him sound like some sort of animal," Deidara grumbled under his breath.

Honestly, would it kill these people to at least refer to their poor targets by name? Or did dehumanising them assuage them of their non-existent guilt? Or maybe they were just racist… because honestly, that's what all this Jinchuriki-hate seemed like to him.

Selective racism, maybe? Or possibly an attempt at self-fulfilling prophecy; refer to people as human sacrifices, and they will let you slowly kill them that much quicker!

"Did you say something?"  
"Isn't he your nephew?" Deidara asked, covering his grumbling.  
"Not my problem," Sasori stated bluntly.

Deidara repressed his urge to strangle the man with a clay snake before letting it explode; maybe it was just him, but these Akatsuki people had no morals, or they were so obscure they were hardly worth mentioning…

The desert, being a desert and therefore made of sand for the most part, was rather boring. He could annoy Sasori by playing eye-spy and constantly using 'S', but that could only last so long. He was pondering forming a bird and flying to Sunagakure (leaving the dreary puppeteer behind) when a familiar sight came as a minuscule dot on the sky.

It was a small clay bird, and Deidara immediate recognised it as one of his own; he hadn't recalled sending any birds with messages, and wasn't expecting any replies, so that could only mean one person had sent the small animated figurine.

He snatched it from the air as it neared him, gaining nothing more than a raised eyebrow from his partner, and hid the bird in the pocket of the black cloak. He would have to read Sasuke's message soon, but he couldn't do that with Sasori so close by.

The towering walls of Sunagakure came into view and his stomach churned.

'_Here already, huh?'_

Any thoughts of Sasuke's message were replaced by the more troubling prospect of capturing the young leader of Wind Country's military forces.

* * *

_**Ya-hey! The Sequel is up! For those who didn't get the ADG message, I've started to put up a mini-story about Minato and Mikoto. You don't need to read it to understand the story - and there will be spoilers if you do - but it's there for your viewing pleasure should you wish to view. It goes by the name of Diverce Inheritance.**_

_**Please dont expect fast updates; I have writers block, packing, and overdue exam revision to do. It isn't conducive for creative writing in the slightest. Crap, I have a NAB in that to revise for too. Maybe I'd better start that revising malrkey now...**_

_**Hope you liked!  
Nat. xxx**_


	2. Act II: Binding Bonds & Broken Blondes

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

* * *

**ACT II: SCENE II  
~ BINDING BONDS & BROKEN BLONDES ~**

* * *

The door to the main household of the Uchiha clan was opened before Naruto had knocked; Itachi gave her an exasperated look as he held the door open for her. She grinned sheepishly and stepped inside with a small amount of trepidation.

"You don't have to knock Naruto; this is your house as much as mine and Sasuke's," Itachi chided, jabbing her forehead with two fingers as she made to remove her shoes.

"Oi, watch those fingers buddy! I thought that was reserved for Sasuke!" she complained, rubbing her smarted forehead with one hand, giving her elder sibling a weak glare.

"Multi-purpose" Itachi replied, hints of a smirk on his mouth.

Her father had showed no restraint with the action - it was used with Kakashi and Obito as much as he and Deidara, and Itachi saw no reason why he should not do the same. True he had predominantly used it on Sasuke, but now that he had two siblings to annoy he would use it on Naruto too.

Ino, it would not be used on.  
He did not want to on the receiving end of one of her upgraded elbow manoeuvres thank you very much.

"Were you here for any reason in particular?" he asked as they walked down the corridor.

"Yeah, I wanted to know if you'd be able to train me with the stupid swirly eyes. The stupid thing pops up from nowhere and makes me dizzy! I have no control over it!" Naruto complained, crossing her arms with a grumpy huff.

"I thought you used it in your test with Kakashi-Sempai?" Itachi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I can use it when it pops up, but I can't control it, and that double vision thing makes my head hurt! I can never decide which hand to block or where to kick!" she complained, pulling on her bunches in frustration.

"I see… maybe I should have given you some tuition before you left. It will be difficult to train you having gotten used to incorrect usage…" he grumbled; he could already see that the necessary training would constitute several headaches.

"So you'll train me?" Naruto asked, her eyes lighting up.  
"I will, but it will have to wait; until my ANBU resignation is processed I simply won't have the time… I really should thank Shisui for taking over the police branch again…"Itachi told her, going off into his own thoughts.

Naruto's reply was to jump on his back with ecstatic glee, knocking the air from his lungs for the second time that day.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank yo-"  
"Calm down, it's no problem for me, but keep in mind that this cant be broadcast to the village" Itachi warned.

Naruto calmed down with that statement; she knew that their relation would have to be kept as quiet as possible. One incident with some Iwa Chunin during her travels with Jiraiya had been proof of that; some how they had been certain she was her father's daughter, and had been relentless in their attempts to drag her back to their own village.

Jiraiya was forced to create some permanent measures with one of his toad tricks before they would leave her alone; thankfully they hadn't know about her mother, only her father. It was a safe assumption that if her mother's identity was publicly revealed, then it wouldn't only be the Akatsuki she had to dodge.

Besides, if the village discover that her boyfriend was in fact one of her siblings there would be a lot of unwanted noise. Shikamaru quickly popped to mind; he'd never liked Sasuke much for some reason, and she got the feeling would like the news even less than her boyfriend himself.

"I get it I get it. Keep it on the down-low right?"

Itachi nodded and dropped down beside her on the sofa. Naruto decided that, official business out of the way, she could finally catch up with the goings on with her sibling. Ino looked like she could do with the help if those irritated twitches sent in Itachi's direction earlier had been anything to go by.

Lots of help.

"So, when are you going to admit that you like Ino?"

Itachi spluttered.

* * *

The eldest of the two male Uchihas stirred in his sleep grumpily – like his brother, he did not like to be woken, especially in the morning. Looking around, he deduced the noise he had heard had been a figment of his imagination.

Glancing at the small clock on his bedside cabinet he growled at the hour hand pointing to the number four. A closer look in the dim light before dawn showed some red stains that had never really come out if the wood of the cabinet. It seemed like an age ago that his brother had been in here, completely confused by a kiss on the cheek by the girl sleeping in his room right this moment.

He hadn't said a thing when he had bumped into her earlier on the evening looking for the bathroom, but she looked so scared of something – he could tell from the way her hands tugged at the hem at one of Sasuke's old t-shirts. Maybe putting her in Sasuke's room had been a bad idea.

The shirt was proof in his mind; she'd always borrowed his brothers clothing in the past - much to Sasuke's irritation no less - but he didn't like the way they seemed to be more of a cementation to her now, a way to reinforce her own memories. Given she had such a strong memory even amongst the clan it worried him all the more.

He sighed and flopped back onto his pillows, trying to dispel the thoughts from his mind. He wanted to get two more hours sleep if he could manage it.

The noise through the wall however was not his imagination – it was faint through the concrete, but the snarl that emerged louder than the mutterings drew on his worry, and he kicked off the covers, and stepped over the wooden floorboards to his door.

After moving down the hall towards Sasuke's door, he knocked once, just in case he was worrying for nothing. Then the screaming started, and he didn't really care about _'just-in-case'_ any more.

* * *

"_Run!"_

_Those were the last words she said before the blinding blood red rage smothered her rationality – except it didn't. It was like being a live puppet on a deadly string; she dived towards the black haired boy in front of her, watching the black marks forcibly spreading over her his own panicked skin._

_She felt like a prisoner in her own body – her mind screamed to stop, for him to stop, but no sound emerged. It was like the only thing she knew how to do was satisfy need for blood, the rage that swallowed her from she didn't know where._

_She didn't want blood, but she swiped clawed hands at his grey skin all the same – she couldn't get away from it! It was torturous magnetic pull that was too strong to beak away from; she could see it in his eyes too. The black sclera faded to a grey every so often; she felt her own burn as the raw chakra flooded her veins, even as she silently screamed to stop - this was Sasuke, she couldn't kill him!_

_But it didn't work, it never worked; she couldn't move away – it was like being chained – and the closer that she was to him the more the Kyuubi overpowered her. Oddly, she felt the rage in the chakra was different before; the Kyuubi hated her she knew – it sneered in aloof disgust and scorned her with taunting words about her eyes every time they met – but it was not mad at her this time._

_The Kyuubi did not like being made to do someone else's dirty work – even if it was it's only chance to rid the world of the eyes it seemed to hate so much - inches, inches away from blood only to be denied by the chains of another, not the man who sealed him. Orochimaru did not want Sasuke dead after all, and the Kyuubi was suitably restrained. _

_Naruto wasn't so sure if that scared her more, or was a comfort._

_She could feel his hands on her throat – shaking hand, strong hands, shaking, strong, shaking, and strong. It was a never ending battle against her body, his body. She pried them off, not to save herself, but to kill him, to feel his blood, to feel the blood of the one person she could never ever in a lifetime ever loose on her hands._

_But she did – thick, watery, red, and metallically sweet and at the same time disgusting; flesh clung to her distended nails as they forced the hand on her throat from its crushing grip. Traitor, why, stop, stop, keep going, blood, and an ever constant cry for someone, anyone to stop her filled her mind, but she lunged again all the same._

* * *

"Naruto, wake up! It's not real, you're dreaming!" Itachi insisted for the third time, trying to get close enough to wake her up with a jolt of chakra to the brain.

She snarled, whimpered, screamed and snarled again in the repetitive cycle she'd been witnessing since entering the room even as she arched and kicked – it was like she was fighting him, trapped in whatever nightmare plagued her. He could easily overpower her, but he was reluctant to do so, even if it would be quicker.

that being said, neurological techniques themselves had never been his strong point; mind games yes, but actually tampering with someone's mind and memories left a foul taste in his mouth - the could be too easily abused.

"Naruto, wake up!" he insisted again, with far more stress.

A clawed hand batted him away viscously, her eyelids flickering enough to show a dull Sharingan beneath them, spinning wildly with no hints of calming. He ignored the surprisingly deep scratches on his cheek, trying to remember everything he had learned about the psyche from his old Jonin Sensei as a Genin.

Ibiki was a good all around teacher, but his specialities were in the mind, the subconscious; his talents had earned him an honorary place on the Yamanaka telepathy register, and Itachi had been taught some of those talents for keeping himself sane when he was six years old.

_'never bottle things up if you can avoid it; ninja life is bloody, but if you keep that bottled up it will find some other way out, and that's never the best way for it to come out. And never ever suppress something you don't want to remember; face it. The subconscious can only suppress so much, and sometimes it can be deadly'_

Ibiki's words flooded back, and Itachi let the panic cross his face when the yelling from the girl her was struggling to calm became clearer.

"I don't want to! Let me out!"

Her flailing arms – hands still elongated into talons – stopped attacking him as he tried to get her to lie still in the hopes it would help her lying down. Instead they lunged for her own throat, clawing at thin air that she suddenly choked on. Itachi was at a loss once again as he tried to pry her hands from her own throat, her nails leaving thin scratches behind them.

Itachi had felt helplessness only twice in his life that he could remember. One of those times had been the combined news of his father's death from Jiraiya, and the news of Naruto's deteriorating condition from one of the doctors during the invasion. The second had been watching Ino screaming as her own drugs sent her into a three month coma – when the reality of Sasuke's abduction finally began to hit home.

Now he had a third moment to add to his list; no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't fight Naruto's nightmares for her. The only solution he could think of was for her to wake up by herself, and that didn't seem likely to occur any time soon.

* * *

_It never ended, it lasted for an age, he threw fire an flames and shuriken and kunai towards her as she directed the chakra poisonous even to her towards him – matching flames, corroding kunai, dodging shuriken as she sent duplicate after duplicate even as she fought against her own skin, her own chakra to prevent._

_He was thrown into the wall, and the brief thought that she had done the unthinkable flooded her mind – horrible forsaken clarity began to swoop down. She couldn't have hurt him, she could never do that, never, never, never, but god she had! She felt the haze dying away as the smoke on the cliff face faded._

_Then, sighting the unfurling of a pair of obnoxious, slimy, clawed wings, she felt the rage starting to swallow her up again. She clawed at the rational thinking just above it like a drowning man desperate for air – only there was rock tied around her ankles. A restraint that forced her to build a blood red Rasengan with that cruel malicious chakra._

_It burned and gnawed at the centre of her palm even as the same chakra pushed her forward towards the flapping grey skinned body suspended on jerking wings, black and white light crackling on one hand._

_No, no, no, no, not again, not this time. She clawed with her own raw nails at the unseen walls - restraints – as her body grew nearer to his. She could see the white bleeding into one of the black sclera now, he was getting too close! She had to stop! Any closer and she really would kill him! _

_Then she was staring at the Kyuubi in front of his cage; black marks horribly familiar dotting the monsters fur like a disfiguring disease. He was snaring raging, banging his head at the walls of his cage and howling from frustration agony or hatred – impossible to distinguish which._

_A glance at her own showed the same horrible markings swirling across her own skin_

"_Get rid of this!" it snarled at her in a brief moment of comprehension._

_It did not want her help – the sickness in its eyes had nothing to do with the swarm of black marks infecting him – but for the monster that destroyed the village to bow his head to her... It was incredibly impressionable. _

_It did not want to die – it had a frugal miserable life for a once proud being – but it wass a coward, clinging to life because that's all it had, and it' would be damned if that was controlled too._

_How was she supposed to help though? She couldn't use seals of the level required to do so, and techniques wouldn't work here. It glares at her once again, even as it throws itself against the bars of its cage._

"_Are those eyes of yours for decoration? You are foolish! Unworthy to be a descendant of the ones who caged me here! Get rid of it!" the giant bloodthirsty demon-animal howled._

_It was not the fourth Hokage it meant, and for some reason a terrifying eye peeking through a hole in an orange mask poppeds into her mind . That man's Sharingan was nothing like hers, but at the same time they were identical. She drew on as much chakra as she could -she was desperate, willing to try anything because she just couldn't let this happen._

_She simply could not kill Sasuke – she could not let him die, it just didn't make sense, she couldn't understand the mere idea. But her chakra acted as if it wasn't her own – the disease stole it away as quickly as she gathered it. It won't let her, and she let out a scream of frustration and grabbed furiously at her chakra, hands on her head because god, it just hurt so much to fight the foreign substances controlling her._

_Then nothing._

_She finally had it! It was quickly beginning to fade though, and she did not need the growl from her prisoner to know she had limited time to hurry. She looked the monster right in the eyes, or tried to; it kept thrashing in its discomfort making the task near impossible_

"_Stay still you stinking mutt!" she screamed, pushing as much of her chakra as she could into her eyes._

_The effect was instantaneous, and she stared into the eyes of the monster with her own. The last thing she saw was the hypnotic swirling of the Sharingan in eyes of the Kyuubi before the cage disappeared._

_Then she could see Sasuke again, no closer than he had been before and still aiming towards her with the black and white Chidori. His eyes told her it had worked – the white is back and she could see the same dusty coal eyes she was so familiar with again._

_He looked completely confused, shocked, and terrified; it was the most he could do was to change the course of his blow. She hated it, hated that snake man for all this – she'd won, but she'd lost at the same time._

_All she could do now was blast her Rasengan over Sasuke's curse mark and through his shoulder in the hopes it would stop this horrible nightmare once and for all as his lightning encrusted hand pierced her shoulder sharply._

* * *

Itachi jerked back when Naruto sat up, screams dying on her lips, drenched in sweat, and her eyes darting round the room in paranoia and confusion.

"W-What happened?" she asked, after jumping at the sight of him with confused panic.

In spite of the questions he desperately wanted to ask, he put them to one side. This sort of this was not his strong point at all – he would have to talk to Ino at a later date. Instead he simply pulled her close and let out a long held breath of relief.

"You had a nightmare" he told her simply; she hadn't stopped shaking and her unusual reluctance to respond to the gesture screamed at him that this was not a closed issue, not by a long shot.

"I don't remember it... I can't remember anything at all Itachi!"

she started to panic – she never forgot things! Not since her Sharingan had awoken had she forgotten anything could feel herself shaking again; residual panic, fear, and something else she couldn't put into words swirled in her gut, but she had no idea what had put them there.

That scared her all the more, enough to further churn the contents of her stomach.  
Why couldn't she remember?!

"Naruto, calm down, panicking isn't helping" Itachi spoke soothingly, rubbing circled on her back through Sasuke's old shirt.

It worked for a few moments, but then the churning started again. She dashed on shaking legs into the bathroom adjoining the room, vomiting noisily into the sink. Then again, then once more before she finally began to relax.

Her legs gave way and she dropped to the tiled floor of the bathroom, chest heaving for air; she felt like she had been strangled, and exhausted. Exhausted like she had used the Kyuubi chakra, but that wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible, it couldn't. End of story.

Soft footsteps entered the room and there was the running of a tap, washing the contents of her stomach down the drain before Itachi bent down on crouched knees, glass of water in hand. She took a few haphazard sips, before guzzling the liquid – not caring that she spilled half of it - till Itachi gently pulled the glass from her hands.

"You need to rest" he instructed, taking hold of one arm gently.  
Naruto stared at him in horror, and he quickly moved to correct his words.

"You don't have to sleep, just rest" he instructed.

Naruto nodded dumbly. She didn't notice that she was being led to his room instead of Sasuke's at all; she was exhausted, terrified, and she had no idea why. She fell back onto the pillows almost eagerly, and Itachi laid down atop the covers after pulling on an old t-shirt.

Even as her eyes still darted this way and that with occasional apprehension, he could see sleep calling her back. He wasn't sure if it was a wise idea to let her do so, but if she slept of her own accord he assumed it would be all right – there wasn't enough time left for more nightmares.

Watching her sleeping, he wondered how the terror he had seen on her face even in dream land had emerged; he also wondered if he should be worried that throughout the whole nightmarish incident, she hadn't cried once.

* * *

Sasuke woke up in a cold sweat, completely and utterly confused. He didn't bother trying to remember the dream – since arriving in sound he'd had them on and off, and he'd never succeeded before. Instead he stared at the five pale half-moon marks on each of his forearms.

He didn't know how he'd gotten them, but he could tell they were fingernail marks. If he had to take a guess, he'd say Naruto had made them during that god awful fight at valley of the end. It would explain why they had never healed completely – the Kyuubi chakra was just that potent.

They were stinging ferociously, and he had absolute no idea why.

* * *

Itachi had never seen the Kyuubi chakra manifesting in his sister, though he had definitely seen hints of it the night before, but standing in the Hokage's office with the reformed team-seven as the news of the Kazekage's capture was delivered rectified the matter for him.

It was only slight, it didn't even show in her eyes, but the room felt warmer for some reason, and he felt his emotional control rising with the temperature; the familiar chakra sickened him. The attack had been devastating because of the heightened emotions that came with dealing with any kind of demon chakra.

It was easy for people to tell Naruto to keep a hold of her emotions, but when the Kyuubi did all it could to egg her on with words and chakra alike; he considered it a miracle she hadn't lost complete control during the forced fight with Sasuke.

Ino gripped her shoulder with a white-knuckled grip, sharing her own anger, sympathy, and limited understanding. It lessened the heat in the room, but Itachi felt uneasy. Naruto's nightmare the night before worried him, it seemed all too familiar an occurrence for something he had never witnessed before.

"There's something I should tell you before I let you take this mission Naruto" Tsunade informed the blonde girl, clasping her hands together and resting her elbows on the desk.

Itachi recognised the tone, and decided he did not like it. What could possibly be worse than the Kazekage (someone Naruto considered a comrade-in-arms not just on their demonic similarities) being kidnapped by the organization that wanted to kidnap Naruto herself?

"The person who captured Gaara was Deidara."

Well shit, that would probably do it. Fellow Jinchuriki kidnapped was one matter, fellow Jinchuriki kidnapped by rampant misguided sibling with ample incendiary supplies was quite another. He didn't know how much Naruto knew of her brother, but she obviously knew something.

After last night, he didn't believe this mission was the best idea for her; she was having enough problems with Sasuke - he was the only thing that he could think of that would generate such a reaction from her - and he was not confident that she would be able to deal with his old team-mate too.

"Tsunade-sama, I'd like to request that I go in place of Naruto for this mission" he stated immediately.

The Sharingan that bored into his pitch-coloured irises made his hair stand on end; the use of Sharingan combined with the Kyuubi chakra was not a pleasant feeling at all, but he would not yield. This mission was dangerous enough for Naruto in the first place, but after last night and now Deidara too? He was having none of it.

"Take that back Itachi! Take it back right now!" Naruto hissed, and the almost invisible layering in her voice truly made him uncomfortable.

A glance at her showed thin veins showing in her red-slitted eyes - Kyuubi completely overpowering the Sharingan - and the itchy heat in the air made him irritable. Oh yes, Naruto was mad. He couldn't blame her, but if she ran into Deidara on this mission then there was no telling what would happen.

"No; you've just got back, and I'm not letting going in there all guns blazing without common sense as you are prone to do. Deidara's involvement will impede your judgement" he stated, and she briefly bristled at the comment.

Briefly.

"You really think I'm that stupid Itachi? I don't give two shits about Deidara! I really don't! Gaara on the other hand, I'd break more than a few bones for; I'm not so immature as to let my fucked up family problems get in the way!" she spat, and Itachi could see the minuscule growth and elongation of her canines.

"No; you let slip this much chakra with agitation as slight as this? No wonder you can't control the Sharingan. You are unprepared-"

The sound of Ino's loud slap echoed throughout the room, and shock was not restricted to Itachi's face only.

* * *

"Phew, I'm glad that's over!" Ino breathed with relief, collapsing onto one of the beds supplied for them by the Suna ninjas.

Naruto, frankly, was amazed she had managed to stand as long as she did after exuding so much chakra into removing the poison from Kankuro. Ino's reserves were not small, but a sneak glance with her Sharingan from behind Kakashi told her the technique used as much as one of her shadow clones did.

Ino may not have pitiful chakra reserves compared to a lot of their fellow graduates, and she surpassed Sakura and Hinata by miles, but placed next to Sasuke her capacity was like a thimble beside a litre bottle (next to Naruto, it was like a thimble next to a gallon tank).

"Do you think we'll get a chance to iron out the kinks of the combo?" Naruto asked, flopping down onto her own bed and gazing out of the window.

"We can try while were on the road… We'll need help though. Ita- Kakashi should be willing to give us a few pointers..." Ino mumbled into her pillow.

"You didn't have to slap him you know" Naruto stated pointedly, giving the exhausted girl an exasperate look.

Really, Itachi had been a bit of a git, but was the slap really necessary? He looked to have been recovering from culture shock after Ino finished saying her piece (the word shouting here meaning yelling without restraint)

"Yes I did! He's a paranoid idiot! He doesn't understand that you're not a kid, and he's not used to having a sister really - you disappeared before he could get completely used to it, so his protective streak is coming out in the only way that makes sense!" Ino ranted, raising her head from her pillow to ensure she could be heard clearly.

"He's pushing all his worries and crap into missions and work, that's why he's digging on about the Kyuubi!" she finished, biting the inside of her cheek.

"Then why do you look like you just found a bunch of dead puppies?" Naruto asked, crossing her arms with a pointed look on her face.

Ino's hardened expression softened, and flopped back on to her pillow.

"He'll hate me! I mean, who the hell slaps Itachi?! Oh god, his fan girls will kill me if they find out! I'm an idiot! I was making progress too! God… I want to crawl in a hole a die! I should be sent to live with the monks!" She wailed into the pillow.

Naruto leaned over the space between the beds and patted her shoulder sympathetically; Ino's anger did not abate. She didn't understand why Itachi was so overprotective all of a sudden - he'd never been like that before. He'd always trusted Naruto to be able to look after herself, and while she did like the man a lot she simply had to take her friend's side in this instance.

She grumbled curses to herself as Naruto flicked off her lights.

* * *

Ino jerked awake with a kunai drawn from beneath her pillow - sure Gaara and his family liked Konoha, but she wouldn't put it past the other officials to try something funny (councils were all the same no matter what village you were in). She could have sworn she'd heard someone screami-

Another hissed whimper drew her attention to the blonde in the bed next to hers; the sheets were tangled in her legs and Naruto was more restless than she was comfortable with. Her nails - gripping the bed linen - were clawed in an uncomfortably familiar manner and the snarled screams were rising in volume once again.

Leaping into action, she waited until Naruto seemed to pause in her night-time torment, before darting a hand toward her forehead. Opening up her mind she searched for the part of the brain controlling sleep, and gave Naruto a quick bolt of chakra.

It was not an easy process - just when she was in the middle of transferring her chakra, Naruto began writhing again, almost toppling her to the floorboards. It was only sheer willpower and desperation that kept one hand held onto the headboard.

Naruto's eyes blearily opened, taking a look at her surroundings with obvious fear. After a few moments she seemed to settle once again - she gave her a long look, pleading that not a word be spoken about the matter.

Ino gave a resigned sigh and turned to her medical pack - she pulled out two blue pills from a small container and handed them to Naruto. She swallowed them dry, and Ino made no effort to hide the worry on her face as Naruto's head slumped forward onto her shoulder her breathing heavy.

She'd had a couple of nightmares herself after watching Kabuto disappear with Sasuke, but the most she suffered was being soaked in sweat and a little restlessness. They had died down after a few weeks as well. She knew Naruto had witnessed quite a bit more than she had without the family connection, but still...

How long had she been having these nightmares? She'd never had thought Naruto as the type to let herself suffer her own subconscious given everything she had already dealt with, but she had clearly underestimated the depth of feelings she had towards Sasuke. She'd assumed he had been the one to feel the most - if either had - of the two, but now...

Turning back to her own bed once the pills began to take effect, Ino didn't need to wonder if Itachi had been right to be so worried after all; she was worrying about the same thing herself.

* * *

Deidara felt sick as the clay bird of his own creation dropped the unconscious body of the Kazekage onto the dirt floor of the cave the ritual to take place in. His ill feeling was generated by two factors; one being the information given to him by Sasuke, the other the sealing ritual itself.

He did not want Naruto anywhere near the Akatsuki hideout, the obvious reason being she too could be caught and captured. If he was faced was a choice, his sister's safety was his first priority, but if he left the organization now there would be no-one to keep an eye on Madara.

Madara knew his relation to Naruto, but Deidara had played his part since the completion of the sealing. Madara was definitely suspicious, but his loyalties were not completely questionable just yet. If Naruto showed up, it could be very bad for his mass-murderer image.

Being the youngest member meant he was already under a lot of scrutiny - especially from Orochimaru, who seemed to take perverse pleasure in reminding him he was not the only Konoha ninja present, and that he was not fooled by his actions.

Luckily for him, Orochimaru was one who enjoyed being entertained; he'd keep his mouth shut if only to see how his subterfuge would play out against their leader. In any case, he was glad he had some warning of Naruto's probable arrival from Sasuke.

That didn't really help with the current problem though; considering his personal links to one of the targets, he was feeling very uncomfortable with the idea of taking part in the extraction. He could all too easily imagine Naruto's body in place of the red-head's, and that made him break out in a cold nightmarish sweat.

He had not seen his sister since she was four months old, but he had an idea thanks to his very short and restricted encounters with Sasuke; the boy was remarkably good at describing her for some reason. He got the feeling he should be suspicious of that, and felt the irrational urge to do something painful to the kid.

Doing his best to suppress his stomach contents, he joined the turncoat ninjas on his respective statue finger. Pain's orders for Zetsu to keep watch for their approaching pursuers rang in his ears as the extraction technique was activated.

* * *

"So? What was training with Jiraiya like?" Ino asked as they stood outside the Kazekage building, waiting for Kakashi to join them.

she was fiddling with the tie of the of her short purple short sleeved yukata - the kanji for her namesake printed on the back in pale blue - along with mesh gloves, leggings, shin guards, bandages and a pair of sandals similar to her primary mentor's; it was a ore flexible version of her skirt-top combination. The fact that Itachi liked the traditional was just a coincidence.

Naruto understood the motive - chocolate makers were attracted with the best cacao beans - but she felt it was somewhat moot when Itachi wasn't even with them in the first place.

"It was great! We went to all these different countries, and I got to meet… a few of the _others" _she replied with a surreptitious gesture towards the seal hidden by her clothing.

"Eh? Really how many are there? What were they like?!" Ino asked

"Nine; there was this totally crazy girl called Fuu I met from Takigakure! She had this awesome green hair, and she could do some really cool stuff with her demon chakra! They don't get along, like me and Kyuubi, but hers is more rational than Kyuubi, more open to co-operation I think... She could fly Ino! She could grow these cool buggy wings and fly!" Naruto gushed with excitement glittering in her eyes.

Fuu was like the twin she'd never had; not only did she have her own irate demon to cage; she had the same exuberance she did. She was a wanderer with an obsession for fizzy juices; she kept a log of all the different ones she'd tried throughout the elemental countries. Naruto had been very put out when they had parted ways.

"...And there was the two from Kumogakure too! The guy was weird, and was really bad at rapping, but his demon actually liked him; they got along really well. He could spit ink like an octopus! The woman had this really nifty thing where she could keep people from dying if she was quick enough to help!" Naruto continued.

She was really a little bit jealous of the other hosts she had met during her training; they all seemed to have some sort of little trick because of their demons – some sort of additional ability that was difficult to achieve even for the best of ninjas. It made her wonder what Kyuubi could do if they tried to get along.

Naruto frowned as her disastrous attempts to do so entered her mind; the Kyuubi was a stubborn git who refused to entertain the notion of a mutually antagonistic partnership. All the stupid animal had ever said was something about promises and keeping his word.

"Sounds like you met some interesting people" Ino noted.

Naruto didn't get a chance to give anything other than a nod; Kakashi had arrived with the crazy grandma from earlier.

* * *

Naruto did her best to keep her temper under control at the sight of the man in front of them; she had only ever seen a picture of the man in his medical files – aged around five or six at that – but she recognised him instantly.

Deidara Namikaze, the only one of her brothers she had yet to meet, now stood in front of her swathed in the Akatsuki cloak with an amused smirk on his face. He was perhaps a little shorter than Itachi, and seemed all too relaxed for her comfort.

Didn't he feel the slightest bit of shame or regret at all? Nostalgia maybe? He looked at her like she was a mere fly on the wall, and not the sister his organization was conspiring to kill for their own selfish purposes. Why was he with Akatsuki? He had to know what their father had sealed inside her, right?

He had to understand! He had to! They were family for crying out loud; it didn't make any sense to her at all! She didn't want to fight him! She knew she had to – if she wanted to avoid being captured herself – but the very notion made feel ill.

She couldnt fight her family, she just couldn't!

"Deidara!" Kakashi growled, his fingers twitching with the lightning of Chidori in his anger.

The blonde man raised an eyebrow.  
"Is that you Kakashi-Sempai? God, you look old with that hair, yeah" he grinned mischievously, and neither Naruto nor Ino could help the snorts that spouted from their noses at the look on Kakashi's face.

"You have some nerve Deidara! You know what Minato went through better than anyone and this is how you repay him?! By joining a terrorist group?! Did you forget Naruto is one of your targets, your own sister?!" Kakashi growled, pulling out a selection of shuriken with his free hand.

"And Itachi lectures _me_ about loosing my temper" Naruto muttered half heartedly.  
Ino gave her an equally weak chuckle in response.

Deidara, who had been too engrossed with Kakashi to notice the specific individuals accompanying him at first, nosed his head to one side, angling his gaze past Kakashi to the three women behind him.

His eyes seemed to recognise Ino for her clan name, and a sadistic humour appeared on his features with sight of Chiyo, but his jaw dropped on sight of his sister.

"What the bloody hell are _you_ doing here?! And what the hell are you _wearing?_ That's _too_ short, yeah!" he yelled, pointing at her dress in horror.

Naruto tried to hold her temper back; she honestly tried with all the bones his body, but she simply couldn't keep her rage bottled up after a remark like that. He had abandoned her, Kushina, Itachi, and Ayame in favour of crazy terrorists and he had the nerve to lecture her about her clothing?!

"You have no right talking to me like that! I'll wear whatever the bloody hell I want you traitorous git! And for your information, long skirts get in the way when I'm running!" she yelled, unlatching the shuriken from her back and whirling it around her head.

Deidara dodged the flaming star-blade, and sent an irritated glare towards her when she caught it on return, and sent it back in his direction. Dodging once again, his hands dived under his cloak into two zipped bags attached to his belt. Moulding a flock of tiny clay birds in his hands, he threw them towards her with irritation clear on his face.

"I don't bloody care if it's convenient or not, put some bloody shorts on instead, yeah!" he roared.

Naruto was beginning to severely loose her temper; who the hell did he think he was? He had no right! He had no fucking right to say any of this! Especially since she was wearing the same mesh leggings as Ino!

This was so fucked up! He sounded like he was being deliberate with his wording, but on another level, she felt they were genuine, but if that were the case then why was he wearing that god-awful Akatsuki cloak?!

He was her brother! It wasn't fair, it wasn't right, it made no sense and she didn't want to fight him! To fight him was to fight with family, and that meant to fight with _Sasuke!_ And god, she _never,_ ever wanted to remember that, but it seemed to flood her mind from nowhere! She did not _want_ to remember _that_, she could not, _would not_ remember that!

She hadn't realised she was shaking until Ino placed a worried hand on her shoulder, telling her to calm down, that there would be answers eventually, that she just had to fend him off for now – it wasn't a proper fight. Ino was lying through her teeth and she knew it (those red clouds on black were not imaginary), but she could not afford to get distracted here.

Shaking the thought from her head as best she could, she turned to Ino and gave a brief nod. Ino stared at her in surprise but quickly replied with a grin; within moments of moving her facial muscles she and Naruto were moving their fingers in rapid hand-seals with perfect synchrony.

"Earth Style; Mirroring Hand!" Ino slammed bother her hands on to the ground before rising again raising her fist. Kakashi stared at the identically formed, much larger version that rose from the earth. She angled her hands in a claw like manner and another rose, shooting towards the male blonde in front of him.

Naruto watched as Kakashi lunged toward the man his Sharingan completely uncovered as they exchanged blows with kunai and physical contact; Deidara seemed uncomfortable, dodging Kakashi and the giant earthen appendages was no mean feat.

Naruto watched, chewing her lower lip as several options to attack flowed through her own mind; settling on one she bit into her thumb to draw blood before slamming it onto the ground. Raising her hand there was a puff of smoke and a toad several heads larger than herself.

"Kichi!" Naruto greeted cheerily, before settling back to battle mode.

"Whaddya want? I was sleeping!" the toad asked grumpily.  
"Gimmie some toad oil! Fire it on those giant claws okay?" Naruto instructed, pointing to the giant appendages as she loosely tossed her shuriken in the other hand.

"That's it?! Fine..." he grumbled to himself before sending a shooting stream of brown oil onto Ino's earthy creations.

In one slick movement she hurled her giant throwing star in the same direction - blade already slicked red with flames. As it sailed through the air, Naruto took the moment to form another hand sign. The moment it skimmed the surface, the giant pair of hand shot into flame, and Naruto took the distraction to

"Naruto, did forget I'm over here as well?!" Kakashi complained loudly, diving out of the way ad one of the flaming hands dived for a moderately horrified Deidara.

"Oh please, you lived through it once, you can do it again Scarecrow!" Ino shot back grinning as she swerved her hands again, trying to corner the rampant blonde.

She succeeded in backing him into one between the two giant earthen clawed palms, and a Chidori-wielding Kakashi. The Jonin lunged towards him, arm raised for a less that lethal blow - while incapacitation was needed, it wasn't just Naruto that wanted a few explanations.

The surprise showed when Deidara dodged the blow with more agility than he had anticipated, and the blonde turned to stick out his tongue mockingly - an action he'd seen on Naruto's face many times before. The blonde man used the surprise to hurl one of his small incendiary figurines towards Kakashi.

"You'll have to be quicker than that Kakashi-sempa-"  
"Rasengan!" Naruto bellowed, jumping down on her brother's unprotected back.

Deidara stared at the girl in front of him, a triumphant smirk dressing her face, and swore as the clone behind him drove the swirling mass of chakra through his shoulder.

* * *

_**Err... **_

_**My only explanation for that is plot device and that track four on the first Evanescence album is incredibly depressing. That and I wanted to get the Valley of The End fight in. And in real life, there's no way Naruto would come out of a fight like that without some kind of psychological damage, male or female, romantic or brotherly in emotive type. That's my opinion anyway.**_

_**Who squealed when they saw evil naruto at the end of the last chapter?!**_  
_**Evil Naruto! Evil Naruto! Evil Naruto!**_

_**Hope you liked it, depressiveness and all the nasty strings that apply included.**_  
_**Nat.**_  
_**xxx **_


	3. Act III: Progression Is Not Placid

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

**

* * *

**

**ACT II: SCENE III  
~ PROGRESSION IS NOT PLACID ~**

**

* * *

**

Naruto's grin faded when the blonde she had just blasted through with her Rasengan melted into a sloppy pile of clay. She had moments to realise this, but did not manage to escape the explosion the clay generated. Naruto was thrown backwards by the blast into the arms of the old sand elder.

"Thanks granny" she groaned, pulling herself up with a wince.

The skin on her forearms had suffered when she crossed them to protect her face from the blast, and the Kyuubi wasn't so quick to heal her these days. Big wounds were seen to immediately, but these smaller ones were a little slower to heal - they were not life threatening, so the Kyuubi did not find them worth so much of his attention.

As the old woman healed her arms for her, Ino and Kakashi were still in battle with her brother; Ino had added her chakra enhanced strength to the use of the earthen animated statue she had drawn from the earth; as she twisted her hands to direct the still flaming appendages she directed another portion of her chakra to her feet.

When the opportunity arose she released it in quick blasts through her feet, twisting her body to gain the momentum and using the propulsion gained from bouncing off her own creation; she may suffer a few sight burns but she was willing to pay the price.

Kakashi had settled for good old reliable punches and kicks himself, but concentrated on his lightning nature as he did; he remembered Deidara's element as earth, and his own lightning element would neutralize his explosion techniques before he made them - if he could land a hit that was.

Deidara was just as good a ninja as Itachi - someone he struggled to tie with - and he knew how to battle against a Sharingan. He was lucky to get a couple of hits on him. Naruto jumped back into the fight, mumbling something to Ino as she did.

Kakashi watched intrigued as Ino brought out a smug grin; she reached a hand into her medic pack and pulled out two wax sealed vials containing a green frothy substance and tossed one to Naruto before removing the wax on of her own and swallowed the contents.

"Bleaagh! You've gotta make this taste better Ino!" Naruto commented after swallowing her own.

"Is that...?"

Kakashi left it hanging, not wanting to give Deidara too much information even as the confusing test replayed in his mind; had Ino and Naruto swallowed the concoction amidst one of the clouds of dust?

The two girls took a side by side position, and Ino dropped her giant hands back to the earth with a loud thud; she then dashed forward with a Rasengan swirling in her palm. Naruto was impressed she managed to keep it swirling even as she dodged the jabbing attacks from the blonde.

Her eyes widened when Deidara formed a spiralling sphere of his own - slightly larger and spinning much more rapidly than Ino's - she had been naive to think explosions had been his only tricks! Ino was blown backwards as it collided with her own, crashing to the dirt head first before Kakashi could reach her.

"What the hell? Who taught you that technique? That's a family technique, yeah! I shou-"

Deidara was cut off by Naruto appearing above him her fist charged, and his eyes widened when his dodging left the earth open to the effects of her chakra-suped punch. Naruto glared at him as she picked herself up from the earthy crater she had created.

"What the hell?! I thought that Tsunade stuff was the Yamanaka's deal!" he complained, giving the crater a look of familiar horror.

Naruto smirked at his reaction, gathered her chakra into her fist and dashed forwards, activating her Sharingan; she still needed some work with it, but she was hoping having two of them instead of Kakashi's single foreign implant would give her an advantage.

A concentrated frown crossed Deidara's face and he seemed to keep a beady eye on her fists as she approached; she couldn't afford to underestimate him this time, he obviously had experience with Tsunade's techniques from his days in Konoha. Then again, his wariness might work to her advantage.

Concentrating some chakra on her eye sight, she watched as Deidara's fist propelled towards her. Following the fuzzy image that grew in front of it; cursing she moved a flat palm into the same position to block his fist, and moved her legs up to one side to avoid a swiping kick - this prediction thing was harder than it had sounded from the_ 'summary for idiots'_ Itachi had given her.

Moving her head to one side, she saw another of those fussy images propelling towards his gut as it twisted away from his fist. Was that the opening? Itachi hadn't gone into openings! She'd been more concerned with dodging! Not one to waste a possible opportunity ploughed her fist in a mimic of the image, ducking her body low and kicking her legs upwards to avoid the kick to her own gut and the punch aimed towards her nose.

She struck gold and the chakra in her palm blared to life in a swirling blue orb; his eyes widened one again as the cerulean vortex ploughed through his stomach. This time, red covered her fingers, and he did not dissolve into a pile of sloppy clay.

* * *

"What's this all about Itachi? It's not like you to organise a gathering without good reason" Jiraiya asked, a nod of agreement from Inochi.

"I have some concerns about Naruto..." he began, leaning against the wall of he Hokage's office.

Tsunade frowned  
"Concerns?"

"The night before the mission to sand, Naruto had... I don't know that nightmare is the right word; she was using enough of the Kyuubi chakra to lengthen her nails..."

The looks of alarm prompted him to continue, especially that on Jiraiya's.

"If she hadn't woken up, she would have strangled on thin air - I would have tried forcing her awake, but unless you know what you're doing, that's a dangerous gamble..."

The silence in the room was telling; Tsunade thought of Ino's mention of her own bad dreams, but they had never had such an effect on her. Itachi didn't know what to make of Jiraiya's expression other than familiarity.

"They've never been quite that bad before... Mutterings mostly" Jiraiya replied rubbing his temples frustration.  
"I think this could have something to do with her Sharingan - it was active I'm certain" Itachi added, trying to remember anything that could be of use.

Inochi frowned as he tried to remember Fugaku's actions when the girl had been younger; he was certain this had happened before, just around the time Deidara had left the village. He had not been included in the mind wipe, but he still couldn't remember completely.

"Didn't Fugaku seal her Sharingan for this very reason?" he asked the two older member of the group.

Tsunade's eyebrows rose as she searched her memory.  
"Now that you mention it, I think he did... she didn't sleep well at all until he sealed it away..." she mumbled, biting her thumbnail as she tried to remember the exact reason.

"It was the sealing wasn't it? I remember because Kushina was at her wits end for almost a year until Fugaku sealed it away. Naruto definitely remembers - that's how she knew about Minato after waking up in the hospital - maybe it's that again?" Jiraiya suggested.

"Are you sure? Couldn't it just be a plain old nightmare?" Inochi asked shaking his head, uncertain of Jiraiya's words.

"That resurgence technique Madara used brought them out of suppression - she even remembers Mikoto according to Ino - whatever this is, its bound to be something to do with Sasuke" Tsunade told him, cementing her team-mates words

"I don't follow any of this at all; father sealed Naruto's Sharingan?" Itachi grumbled, not understanding an iota of the conversation.

"Fugaku cast a memory technique on the village because of... Well, it was best no-one know who her mother was, not to mention her father - the village believes she is Kushina's daughter. You were one of those people; it was supposed to break when he died, but clearly he linked someone else into the technique as well..." Jiraiya explained.

"All this talking doesn't solve our problem - if Jiraiya says these nightmares aren't uncommon, and they permanently rising in fervour, then there is every chance Naruto could unleash the Kyuubi or kill herself in her sleep" Inochi interrupted, bringing them back to the point.

"For now we can have Ino stay with her, and I can make something to keep them at bay, or dull them, that will give us time to get the root of the problem. Itachi, try drilling some control into that Sharingan of hers" Tsunade instructed.

Itachi nodded; he'd have a talk with Ino when they got back. He would probably regret asking her the favour later on, but needs must. He'd already promised to train Naruto too, so there would be no problems there. Maybe he could get himself assigned to team seven once his ANBU resignation was through the system. Tsunade had already promised to push it through.

"That being said, if this persists I think sealing her Sharingan once again should be discussed; we can't risk the Kyuubi breaking the seal" she finished.

Itachi nodded; he'd expected as much.

"On that note, the seal is beginning to weaken..." Jiraiya ventured, opening a topic as equally disheartening.

Outside the door, Shikamaru Nara was rooted to the spot with unnoticeable disbelief clouding his features.

* * *

Deidara had to admit, he was impressed with what his sister and her team-mate was displayed during the time with his clone. They had to be using some sort of exchange technique, but where they had found one was a mystery; Konoha didn't have any that he knew of at that level.

It was nothing to do with those potions the Yamanaka girl had produced, and her timing was impeccable - his clone reflected his own abilities, and he had been under the impression she would be using the strength her team mate had displayed instead of a Rasengan.

He shivered remembering Tsunade use the same skill.

Proud as he was though, he was not looking forward to the meeting that would take place in mere moments; he could hear the angry voice of his sister outside already. Having his clone face her was one thing, facing her himself was quite another.

"Deidara, do you remember that conversation we had outside of Suna?"

Deidara jerked his head towards his partner; he was staring at the body of the former Kazekage with an incomprehensible confusion. He's never seen the man confused before; murderer or not, Sasori had always been a very composed person, and Deidara had grudging respect for his abilities.

"Vaguely... Why?" he asked, curiosity piqued by the man's sudden quiet sincerity.  
"You remember what you asked me?"

Deidara remembered asking something to the extent of _'Doesn't murdering your nephew feel just a little bit odd?'_ between some very narrow lines and he nodded in response to the man's question.

"I lied"

Deidara was given no time to question the redhead hidden in his puppet; the boulder blocking the entrance was shattered to hundred of pieces and he was face to face with his enraged sister for the first time in almost sixteen years.

* * *

"Juugo"

Sasuke quietly hissed the name through the small window in the cell door. The orange haired boy in the corner of the room lunged for the door, not out of uncontrollable rage, but of relief.

"Sasuke! What are you doing here? I though Orochimaru had transferred for certain!" he asked through the cell doors.  
"I still have a few months left before his body starts to give out - that's actually why I'm here. I need your help..."

He had grown close to Orochimaru's captive future host in a way different to Kimimaro - he'd never really been a supporter of Orochimaru's, he'd only sought him out for help in restraining his urges. He'd ended up being the source of numerous experiments for the man, and no closer to rationality.

Sasuke had managed to keep his urges in check with his Sharingan since his first visit to his cell; if Sasuke needed his help - he couldn't quite imagine how - he would do everything he could for him.

"I don't know what I can do, but I'll try my best; what do you want?"

Sasuke held up two objects; one was a scroll, the other a small clay animated feline figurine.

"I want you to sent this cat out of your cell window - it's the only window that isn't guarded here, and this message has to get out if I'm going to get the two of us out of here,"

Sasuke held the objects through the bars of the small door-window.

"And the scroll?" Juugo asked taking the two objects - he'd have to put the scroll somewhere he couldn't accidentally damage it in one of his rages.

"I want you to keep hold of it for someone for me - if everything works out as I have planned, you should be out of here soon; Konoha will be able to cure you too, properly this time. It just depends on Suigetsu..." Sasuke frowned, thinking of the mist ninja.

Juugo understood that; Suigetsu wasn't the most reliable of the prisoners, but he was one of the few with enough sanity and strength remaining to band up for whatever Sasuke had in mind.

"In any case, I want you to give it to someone - I can show you who with my Sharingan in a while, but make sure those get out all right? Just out of curiosity, this base is in water country isn't it?"

Juugo nodded in answer to his question and to confirm he would accomplish the task he had been given. He was desperate to ask questions, but if anyone caught wind of any confirmed plans they would have no chance - Sasuke was watched closely enough as it was, and it was common knowledge he was not a willing prisoner from his previous escape attempts.

"Then, this is the person I want you to give the letter to..." he said, activating his red eyes.

It was different to all the other times he had looked into the same eyes; instead of feeling like a battle, it was a much more peaceful feeling. He was certain he was seeing things from Sasuke's point of view and attentively drank in what he was seeing...

* * *

_"What on earth are you doing?! you don't dip tomatoes in sugar Sasuke!" a blonde girl with rather bright blue eyes shrieked, clearly aghast as Sasuke dipped his own chopped tomatoes into a small pile of white on the side of his plate._

_They were seated at a kitchen table, and from the looks of things, it was a celebration of some sort. The two arguers glared at each other with such ferocity, Juugo found it hard to believe they were friends at all, let alone tolerate sitting next to the other._

_"Shut up; I like tomatoes with sugar" Sasuke growled - he must have been about ten years old.  
_

_"Can't you two give it a rest? This is a party!" a girl with pale blonde hair and eggshell eyes complained; her tone indicated this was a common occurrence - she seemed to be avoiding the tomatoes, and Juugo applauded her avoidance of the war zone._

_"I agree, if you two keep up we'll never get to the presents" another boy, a few years older but remarkably similar to Sasuke commented from his own seat at the table - he had two pile of white on his plate; very diplomatic._

_The rest passed in a haze till Sasuke was handing over a rather haphazardly wrapped present to the darker blonde - carnations streaked with blue and red dye in a purple terracotta pot. The blond girl seemed to be over the moon if the suffocating hug she gave Sasuke was enough to go by._

_"How did you get them to grow from seed?! I've been trying for months and months!" she asked, hopping up and down in excitement as she gave the plant a scrutinising gaze._

_"Ino helped me out a bit with the plant, but Itachi helped me with a technique that encouraged it a lot..."_

_"Yes, and don't forget you have washing up duty for a month for that" the older boy reminded with a smug look on his face - the disgust on Sasuke's was an amusing sight._

_The other blonde girl - maybe she was Ino? - laughed as her brighter coloured companion crushed Sasuke in another suffocating hug._

_"Happy birthday Naruto!" she yelled._

_

* * *

_

Juugo was enraptured; he had never seen this side of Sasuke, and he knew very little about what his life back in his home village had been like; curiosity driving him, he did something he had never even considered before - he followed the connection from Sasuke's Sharingan to his mind.

instantly a flood of memories washed over him: praying over a grave decorated with Ramen bowls with the straw-yellow haired girl, dragging her into a shop doorway in the middle of a thunderstorm, feeling completely dazed after a peck on the cheek, violence for what seemed like a dodgy comment from the two at their apparent first team meeting.

Then he falling off of a chair and accidentally landing his lips on her own - just catching the sight of two gleeful smirks on from the paler blonde and a dark haired man... Juugo guessed that was his older brother Itachi; even locked up here, he had heard of Itachi, but from Sasuke's point of view he was much more human than he had heard. He didn't have much time to ponder as more memories flowed.

Sitting on a roof watching a far of lightning storm, arriving to a destroyed village with both girls, watching the brighter one screaming as a doctor tried to heal something in her mind, some sort of form... He had been right; there was something more to one of them than Sasuke liked to show; even little things were more than enough evidence.

But Sasuke was too cautious with information sometimes; he pressed on and found some darker memories - watching from behind an ice prison as the girl tore into a dark haired person - disbelief and the choking of the chakra she seemed to exude were the most prominent feelings...

Then there was the burning as Orochimaru bit into his neck, rage as Tayuya - he recognised her immediately - dropped a handful of blond hair onto the cobblestones, something being forced into his mouth before blacking out, and finally that girl's terrified face as the red chakra from before swallowed her seemingly without approval and she lunged towards him.

Orochimaru truly sickened him, but this was on another level; Juugo was a kind person when not on one of his rages, and this level of manipulation was sickening to him. He felt complete abhorrence for the man as the next memories came; grey hands wrapping around her throat of an independent will, and the last image of the other girl watching in horror before passing out again.

The connection was broken and Sasuke was panting for breath outside the cell door; he must have been trying to break the connection for some time. He noticed the uncomfortable look on Sasuke's face, and wished had hadn't done what he just did - those were private memories after all.

But those last two, especially the first spoke something to Juugo; he had killed his own girlfriend in one of his fits, so he couldn't help but feel something familiar with those two memories.

"I guess you know who you're looking for; she'll be among the people looking for you, so give it to her then" Sasuke almost mumbled before turning to leave.

"Its not your fault Sasuke, believe me when I say I know what it fells like to hurt someone you care for like that; she's still alive right?" he called out before the dark haired boy could leave.

Sasuke paused for a moment, thinking his words over.

"I could have called the ANBU easily, but I let pride get in the way and got caught; that wouldn't have happened if id called the ANBU"

Juugo was, to put it bluntly, very surprised. Sasuke was usually horribly difficult to draw information from - he'd never been much of a talker to begin with, and liked his privacy. This was something that was obviously just that, so the fact that Sasuke was even letting him broach the subject was a miracle in and of itself. To actually talk about it...

"She's alive isn't she?" Juugo repeated.  
"Yes" he replied, not really seeing the older boy's point.

"Then forget that sort of thinking, because I can guarantee it does nothing to change things; think about the good stuff. That's what I do when I have some sanity"

Sasuke stared at him for a few moments before turning down the hall after a reminder to relay both messages - and instructions to send the cat as soon as possible - but Juugo was certain he had made his point.

feeling like he had been more useful than even Sasuke had expected, he climbed up towards his tiny barred cell window and pushed as mush of his chakra into the small cat as he could - the seals on the room as well as the locks on the door were strong Orochimaru didn't bother with suppression seals on him - and released it.

He watched with a smile for once as it shimmered and turned into a bird seeing the cliff face, before flapping its tiny wings and taking off, heading away from the island prison and back towards the continent.

* * *

Ino glared at the red-headed puppet in front of her as she yanked out the sword that had been impaled into her side - Chiyo's protest fell on deaf ears. She pulled out a sickly pink vial from her medic pack and quickly swallowed the contents; it tasted as bad as it had during her fight with that bone freak.

Fortunately she had not used an incomplete and mentally hazardous brain boost juice this time, so the effects it had on her mind were severely dulled compared to the last time she had used it. It was a simple matter to heal up the wound he had left in her side then.

The syrupy liquid healed anything she had an antibody for, and she'd already used the antidote to the poison on the man's puppet-weapons. She just needed enough of her mental chakra for it to work, and she had plenty of that right now.

"You said you would tell me about Orochimaru if I beat you; hurry up and spill your guts!" she spat.

"I did promise that didn't I? Fine; go to the Tenchi Bridge in grass country ten days from now - I've arranged a meeting with one of my spies" he choked out.

"You need a spy for your own partner? You rouge ninjas really are weird" Ino muttered to herself, keeping her attention on the man in front of them.

"Orochimaru changes bases on a regular basis, and he will be due to visit his grass country one then - that Uchiha brat gets dragged everywhere and is kept on a very short leash; I'd wish you luck, but since I don't, I'll settle for being impressed if you tear him away from the snake" he smirked.

With those last words, he slumped onto the ruins of the cave hideout; Ino felt no remorse for the man at all. So what if he was Gaara's uncle? He was an Akatsuki! He was one of the same people as Orochimaru - his partner! Akatsuki was the source of every bad thing that had happened to her team-mates, no matter who it was.

Ino Yamanaka was not one to forgive so easily, especially not the Akatsuki.

The battle had been touch and go when she had been stabbed and scratched with the various flying poisoned implements, but she'd been trained to dodge things by Tsunade - her training was mostly dodge-or-die in nature - so she'd eventually picked up the necessary movements without Chiyo's help.

She could have picked up on his centre earlier though - she'd been feeling the mental presence there throughout the whole fight now that she thought about it - some Yamanaka she was, not picking up on a mental presence so close by. Her father would eat her when he found out!

Dusting off her mesh gloves as if having just finished sweeping, she turned to the old woman behind her with a grin.  
"Let's go find Naruto and the old scarecrow; you want to try help Gaara right?" Ino asked, helping the old woman to her feet and starting the walk out of the cave.

"Nothing gets past you Yamanakas does it?" the woman asked with friendly irritation.  
"Not much" Ino grinned.

* * *

Naruto felt the Kyuubi in her veins as she came down on the now one-armed blonde man, held down by her clones. She had been half tempted to send a Rasengan through his gut there and then, but unfortunately violence only got answers with interrogation, and she'd never really had the patience for interrogation.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she roared, smashing a Kyuubi enhanced fist into his cheek.

She wasn't quite using one tail of chakra just yet, but she was close. It was enough for her fist to have left a red welt on his skin when she had connected with his cheek.

"You acted like a living sister complex, you called Scarecrow Kakashi-Sempai, but you're an Akatsuki! You killed Gaara, you tried to kill me! What the hell are you playing at?!" she screamed, feeling her control of the Kyuubi slipping in her rage.

She let out blow after blow in a repetitive cycle - she could feel the Kyuubi chakra growing thicker and ticker by the moment, but she didn't care to hold it back. How could he mess with her head like this?! He had no right! She was still against using a full-blown Rasengan - that reminded her too much of Sasuke - but god damn it, she would drag him to hell and back!

She paused, panting for breath - a little pleased with the bleeding red burn on his face, evidence of the Kyuubi ever-so-slightly emerging from her pores.

"What kind of brother are you?!" she yelled, giving him the best glare she had learned from Fugaku when he had been around - something was holding her fist back, and she knew that Kakashi hadn't caught up with her yet.

He stared at her through his injuries with difficulty, but even amongst the swelling welts and bruises, she saw something she had not expected. if she had learned anything of their similarities in their two meetings, it was that they both tended to were their emotions on their sleeve, so there was no mistaking the look of... defeat? Resignation?

"I guess you never got dad's box after all" he muttered to himself, and it was only the Kyuubi chakra enhancing her hearing that allowed the words to travel down her ear.

Naruto was stumped by his words for a few moments before words of her blonde team-mate, from when things had been much less complicated even if not simple, popped up in her mind - when they had been trying to find the roots of her Sharingan with a bit more specification:_ "Sasuke said he'd found that box, didn't he? The fourth is obviously all wrapped up in this mess somewhere!_"

"What do you mean? What's inside that box?! What does it have to do with you stabbing me in the back like this?! She demanded.

He swore under his breath again, but turned back to her gaze with a little more vitality than before. Before she knew what had happened, she had been flung back into her teacher - Kakashi had finally caught up; he regained his footing and exuded a smug grin.

"Why don't you find out for yourself sis?" he asked.

Naruto didn't know if he was just winding her up or not; she couldn't trust a word out of his mouth, but the fact he had mentioned it earlier made her doubt her doubts.

"Bye bye! We'll chat again some other time, yeah!" he called out.

Naruto didn't know which was more surprising - the flash of yellow light that he disappeared in, or the untraceable sense of familiarity she had learned to associated with the memories her Sharingan had yet to unlock.

* * *

Naruto stared out of the small window at the raging sand storm outside the window; they had been held up by the raging winds that made crossing the desert back to fire country impossible. It was al the more frustrating with the information Ino had received from Sasori.

It would take three days to get to Konoha from Sunagakure, and another two to reach grass country in time to meet the man's spy; that left only four days of leeway to get organised for the mission and wit for what could be a week-long to pass.

Everything seemed to be against her! Everything was making it harder and harder to find Sasuke - first the complete lack of information on Orochimaru, then the Akatsuki, and now the freaking weather was out to get them too.

She knew Ino was none to relaxed with those nightmares she kept waking up in a cold sweat from; it would be all right if she could remember what she kept dreaming about, then she would be able to work through her issues. As it stood, it could be anything Sasuke related, to Akatsuki, to the night the Kyuubi was sealed inside her.

Even her own bloody head was getting in her way! If she didn't get some sleep soon she'd either go nuts like Gaara had or she'd collapse in the middle of a fight!

There was a knock at the door, and Gaara entered the room on his ever quiet feet; he looked a whole lot better than he had earlier that day. After he had been revived by that old council lady - the mere fact he was breathing showed he had improved he from being dead after all.

"Gaara, your doctors are going to kill you for sneaking out of the hospital like this! You should be getting some sleep!" she scolded, sitting up on her bed, and patting the covers at the end.

He chuckled.

"I remember when I wouldn't be allowed in hospitals and sleep was physically impossible" he mused.  
"You earned it Gaara! Not the dying bit because that bit sucks ass, but the Kazekage gig you earned! What was it you wanted to talk about?"

She hadn't seen much of Gaara since the exams, but she knew he wasn't the sort of person to do something without good reason - he was a little like Sasuke in that sense, only Sasuke was a little less picky with what his reasons were, especially if they could win him an argument.

"There is an old Uchiha bunker on the other side of the village - it dates back from the first war when this area was under Uchiha control" he stated.

He immediately gathered her attention.

"We haven't been able to get inside because of the blood-keyed wards. Since we haven't really had much real interaction with Konoha since the invasion, there was never an Uchiha to try deactivating them..."

Naruto knew where he was going with the news; she and Ino had already told him what had happened to Sasuke and of their biological relation earlier that day. There may not have been an Uchiha before, but she was one of the main family line.

"But the storm-"

"- it's safe enough to cross the village if you know how; I'm certain Temari will be willing to show you the way" Gaara interrupted before she could finish her objections.

Naruto considered it for a few moments; there was no telling what was in that bunker, but Jiraiya had been certain during training that her Sharingan would be of use in controlling the Kyuubi. Itachi said he hadn't found anything but vague references in the clan history scrolls, but if this bunker was from the time of the clans' settlement in Konoha...

"I guess it's better than sitting around waiting for this damned storm to die down!" she grinned, earning a twitched at the corner of Gaara's mouth.

* * *

"Naruto hurry up and open this damn thing up before my hair becomes a termite mound!" Ino yelled through a mask covering her mouth and nose to block the sand swirling in the sharp winds around them.

"Shut up Ino! I can't read these runes with you yelling along with this wind!" Naruto shot back in irritation.

These runes were already taking all of her concentration to translate; Jiraiya had taken her sealing capabilities further during her training out of common sense - as the holder of a demon, she should know about the seal that held it. One of the subjects had been the use of runes in sealing.

They made the techniques stronger and harder to break than normal seals because they were - back when people lived in caves and didn't even know what chakra was - somewhat religious. They had been a headache at first, but she had got the hang of them eventually, but they were still a bitch to translate.

And that was before she tried to beak the seals.

She traced the angular carvings on the wall, holding up a shielded lamp to get a better look at the symbols; Purisaz! The thunder god! What was that doing here?! Ansuz! Tiwaz?! That was the one that came with that one handed god wasn't it? Mr combat-and-glory! What was with all the god affiliated runes on this entry?!

Those sort of runes were only used for protecting some serious trump cards or very, very, bad, bad things; that last thing she had seen these on was on one of the old temples Jiraiya had taken her to test her knowledge. It had been for protecting the remains of some crazy old lord.

These runes were not to be taken lightly!

"Ino! Come hold this lantern for me! I need to look at these more closely!" she called out, bending her knees and pulling up her hood as she bent to read the line of carving below.

"Is it bad?" Ino asked above the wind and her mask, taking the lamp and holding it over her head, giving her a much better view of the gouges in the rock.

"I don't know yet, but all three god runes are on the first line..."  
"...What the hell kind of bunker is this thing?" Ino asked - she knew at least knew the significance of the three runes with dispositions towards the old gods.

Naruto ignored Ino and peered closer to the rock face once again; Mannaz? Gebo? Those meant human, and generosity, or gift... Naruto looked back at the first line once again. These were all out of order, so it was hard to read. Did it mean that human had received a gift from the gods, or she was supposed to give them one? If it was the second then...

Naruto pulled out a kunai and made a small gash in her palm, smearing it over the runes - once she was done it was quickly healed by the Kyuubi. She pushed some chakra into the doorway and made the basic deactivation seal and held her breath.

Nothing happened.

Well, that was that idea scrapped; that meant a human blood sacrifice wasn't required. How the hell was she supposed to get gods she didn't even believe in to give her the gift necessary to open the doorway? She wished Sasuke was here; he may be hopeless with the actual art of sealing, but he would know the symbols a little - they were on a few of the shrines in the clan compound - and mind benders like this were right up his alley.

Kakashi might have been able to help, but he was stuck with exhaustion from using his Mangekyo, and there was no way she was getting Gai's team involved in this. Ino didn't understand the mythology enough to help, so she was on her own...

She was missing something here, she knew it! Gesturing Ino to hold the lamp closer she found some more runes - smaller than the ones before.

Kaunan; disease?! What the hell was locked up in this thing?! Some lesser runes making up the pieces in between gave instructions of trials of knowledge, and ability - but hadn't she done that with the blood? And shouldn't those have been at the start?

She continued reading and found some more encryptions on the stone: Fehu; that could either mean livestock or wealth, and since the Uchiha family wasn't really into the farming business, she'd place her bets on the former of the two. But why was it first on the line? It should have been at the end according to the number order...

Looking at the whole thing, she noticed that the only runes in the right order were the god runes. That was either very bad craftsmanship, or very important. Naruto filed the information away for later and went back to the second line to look at the last rune: Odal; heritage? Wha- wait! Heritage?!

"Oh god, that's it! That's heritage!" she yelped, the pieces clicking into place.  
"What? What does heritage mean?!" Ino yelped, startled by the outburst.  
"Nothing, sorry, I just figured something out..." Naruto apologized.

These new runes, whilst very enlightening, meant she would have to get out her ink.

"Do you think you can do something to keep this sand off? I need to combine some of these, and all this sand is getting in the way!" she asked, loudly to make herself heard.

"Like what? A weather dance?!" Ino protested.  
"Of course not! Just cover it up or something while I link the runes together! What good is a weather dance going to do? That's for rain!"

Naruto was certain she heard mumblings about rain dances being for rain, but she ignored them and helped Ino pin their cloaks over the front of the small hollowed entrance. Naruto opened up her kunai pouch to out a brush, dry cloth, and ink-brush, instructing Ino to wash off the blood she had already smeared on the rocky indents.

As Ino did so she slashed her palm once again, and unscrewed the lid of her ink; Ino guessed what she was doing as she squeezed some of her blood into the black substance, and quickly did her best to dry off the wall with the rag. Naruto's wound closed up once again as she finished and after a quick shake to mix the blood and ink together, Naruto picked up the brush.

"Walk me through this?" Ino asked.  
"All these runes are about the giving or receiving of a gift with some sort of links to the gods"

Naruto gestured to the first line with her brush.

"I thought that meant it just needed a blood donation but..."  
"Just donating blood isn't enough to open the door, I get that, but what about the first line?" Ino asked impatiently.  
"I was getting to that; I didn't see these on the second line because they were so small"

She gestured to the second line, and Ino bent closer to the wall - her eyes widened when she caught sight of them.

"I recognise that one! That's disease! Dad uses it in his nasty interrogations!" she cried, paling a little.  
"Except it doesn't mean disease, not exactly; it says heritage as well, and gives instructions on knowledge and ability."

"I'm lost again..." Ino complained, scratching her head as she tried to link the scores on the stone into something that made sense.  
"Haven't you noticed that all these runes are completely out of order even in the traditional translation? I think this is a lock combination type of sealing"

Naruto thwacked the rock wall with her hand triumphantly; Ino gave the runes another glance and began muttering to herself again.

She drew around the first three god runes with the bloody-ink, linking them altogether, then drawing another line and connecting them to the rune for generosity - which she also circled. There was a faint red glow on the bloodied-black lines and the runes themselves and Ino gawped.

"I... I have never seen rock do that before..."

Naruto ignored and concentrated; if she got the combination wrong, she wouldn't be able to open it. For these types of sealings, you could only use your blood once. They usually accompanied booby traps too… Luckily these things were usually old sayings of some kind, and there weren't that many of them -usually warnings of some kind.

Crossing her toes since her fingers were occupied, she drew another circle around the rune for human, and then an arrow to it from the one for gift. Her payers were answered when the runes glowed again.

"That's good right?" Ino asked, giving the wall a cautious glance.

Naruto nodded, biting her tongue as she circled the rune for disease and linked it to gift on the line above with a downward arrow; another glow. Good. She then circled wealth and heritage, and linked both together before linking them to disease with another arrow - another glow. A final arrow from the last two runes to the rune for human lit the carvings and blood laced ink up in a fiery red glow.

"I guess this is the moment of truth then..." Naruto muttered, stepping a bit closer and glancing at her work.

There was only one thing left to do.

"You might want to stand back a bit for this - lock combinations need a bit of a push to get them to cooperate at the best of times, and with those god runes, this is going to be _really_ stubborn..." Naruto advised her blonde friend.

Ino frowned, but nodded and took several steps backwards, pulling the cloaks sheltering them form the howl of the storm up as she backed into them.

Naruto took a deep breath and placed her hands in the middle of her still damp lines. Summoning her chakra she activated her Sharingan and pushed as much chakra into the ink containing her own blood. The howl in her mind was almost as loud as the wind, but she forced her eyes open and concentrated on the chakra moving through the bloody links.

The shriek of the rock was horrible as it groaned and bubbled beneath her fingers - it spat pieces of stone and sucked from other areas, reforming the runes in the right order across the two lines. After what seemed like an age, Naruto finally let go of the wall with a wheezed sigh.

Ino caught her before she fell over.  
"What was that?!" she demanded.

"Lock combinations have to be rearranged, but this one wanted specifics that would show I had the right to open it; a sacrifice of the gift given by the gods, and proof of heritage as well. Since this is an Uchiha bunker the proof is obviously the Sharingan,"

Naruto slumped down onto the sandy ground below them to catch her breath.

"Since the gift was the heritage itself, I had to give it some blood and a really big chunk of chakra too."

Ino bent down and began digging around in her medic pack  
"What does it say? Aren't these things usually sayings?" she asked as Naruto packed away her ink with a wobbly hand.

"_'The gods' gift to man is the disease of wealthy heritage' _or _'wealth and heritage';_ it a warning that what we find inside may seem beneficial but could be our undoing. For me specifically, it means that my Sharingan is a double-edged sword..." she replied, taking a drink from the water flask and swallowing the ration pill Ino handed her.

"I don't think I want to go inside now..." Ino whined, giving the reformed runes a wary gaze.  
Naruto glared at her.

"I was joking! So, what know? How do we get inside?"  
"Just break the door down" Naruto instructed, taking down their cloaks now that the business with the sealing was over.

Ino grinned as she fastened her cloak around her shoulder.  
"Now that I can do!"

* * *

**_I'm four to five chapters ahead, I have a lemon out of the way, and I know what the plot is! Everything is going well, now if only I could say the same for my exams. I hate exams, and mine start in about six days. English, Psychology, and Sociology; I'm going to die from brain exhaustion, I know it._**

**_Hope you liked the chapter!_**  
**_Nat._**  
**_xxx_**


	4. Act IV: Play Nicely Children

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

**

* * *

**

**ACT II: SCENE IV**

**~ PLAY NICELY CHILDREN ~**

**

* * *

**

With one short tap of her fist in the centre of the runes, Ino crumbled the door to the bunker to rubble. Swallowing nervously, Naruto took her by the wrist and they both stepped forward into to dark cavern, lamp held high. Two shrieks of fright echoed through the dark room as the previously crumbled door was seemingly magnetized back together.

"I guess that means we have to keep going, huh?" Ino asked with a half-hearted attempt at laughter.

Naruto ignored her looking up at the runes covering the walls; she could just make out two closed passageways at the other end of the room from the dim light of the lamp, but knowing which one to follow was another matter. These sorts of buildings were always riddled with more booby traps than they knew what to do with. She had no intention of falling into spiked pits or drowning in something - out here, she'd guess that was probably sand.

After another glance at the wall, hoping to find the opening mechanism - the journey rune stood out in particular, sculpted instead of carved. She pushed chakra into it, and the harsh grating of a slab of rock moving to free the entrance to one passageway grated on both their ears.

"Please don't tell me were going down that thing...!" Ino begged, clinging to her friends arm, giving the newly opened doorway a cautionary look.

Ino did not like cramped spaces like this - having grown up with her entire clan free to pick thoughts out of her head if she allowed it had left her a very open person, like most of her clan. Dark enclosed spaces were not something she found enjoyable at all, nor any other Yamanaka. It was why their underground homes were so big and interconnected.

"As long as we read the runes we'll be fine"  
"I can't read runes this complicated! That doorway was bad enough, but all these are just gibberish to me!" Ino complained, glaring at the carvings on the walls.

Naruto rolled her eyes and dragged Ino towards the narrow opening, making certain to keep her lamp high to get some decent light. If she was honest, she was a little worried herself - these places were never so simple. She nearly been mushed by spikes two minuets after setting foot inside the one she had visited with Jiraiya.

Shaking those thoughts aside, she dragged Ino forward and began the walk down the narrow hallway.

"Q-Quit being such a baby Ino! It's just an old corrido-"

She was cut of by her own shriek as the floor suddenly gave way, and they suddenly began to slide down the slanted floor to whatever waited them below.

* * *

Sakura Haruno was bored.

She loved her job, and the fact that the third Hokage had given her the opportunity was something she would be eternally grateful for, but the number of codes that actually needed to be translated and decoded was... well, there was a reason there were only three encryption specialists in Konoha (and she couldn't be counted as one till she passed her third exam).

Frankly, she was tempted to take up Anko's offer of introducing her to the basics of interrogation just to fill the time. She could only fill out so much paperwork to say there hadn't been anything to decode before she fell asleep. If only her treatment was over, then she could start training and regain her chakra again, but Tsunade was still rebuilding her coils from the ground up.

Then she could help Sakura and Naruto a bit more; she was already learning the theory of medical techniques, and she had gone over hundreds of scrolls on Illusions, all she needed was her chakra.

The door burst open and one of the people from the message tower entered with trepidation.

"Can I help you?" Sakura asked, removing her feet from her desk in a hurry to look more professional; her teachers clumsiness seemed to have rubbed of on her if the piles of paperwork that crashed to the floor were anything to go by.

"We received this a few hours ago; we didn't bring it right down because... well, the sender is a rouge ninja; he defected sixteen years ago. We had to perform some security checks" the woman told her as she picked herself up with a forlorn look at the spilled paper work.

She held out her palm, and Sakura would have squealed at the adorable little cat figured licking its paw had it not been so exciting. A rouge ninja had sent this? For real? The last time something of this magnitude had occurred had been when the Shiho had decoded the scroll requesting aid in rescuing the Kazekage. That had been almost a week now!

"Really?"

Sakura asked with possibly too much excitement. The woman nodded and handed the small clay figurine to her, and it rubbed its head against her thumb affectionately. Sakura gave a squeak of excitement and shoved the rest of her papers off her desk. This kind of message would dissolve onto the paper in some way or another, so she would need some space.

"Who was it who sent it?" she asked, going through a set of drawers for her supplies.  
"Deidara Namikaze" the woman replied, and Sakura nearly fell over again.

Ino had placed a lot of trust in her by revealing that name to her, and his relation to Naruto. She didn't doubt Naruto knew she had been told, but the fact that Ino had trusted her with the information was a lot to her.

She hadn't been told everything - not by a long shot - but she knew who he was in relation to Naruto, and she also knew he was a member of the terrorist group trying to kill her and suck out her demon.

What was Sasuke doing with one of his private messaging figures?

Dragging a sheet of paper from drawers, she laid on the surface and placed the small animal in the centre. She shrieked in surprise when the animal exploded, and fell backwards much as her tutor would have. Coughing and wafting smoke from her face, she stared through the smoke - instead of being absorbed it had imprinted the message onto the paper, burning directly through it and onto her desk no less!

Getting a sponge, ink, and another piece of paper, she carefully lifter the first sheet over the second and dabbed the black liquid through the holes left by the explosion with the ink. After waiting a few moments for the ink to dry, she carefully removed the first sheet of paper.

Glancing over the second paper her eyes widened, and she turned to the messenger.

"This is going to take some time to decode; I'll take it up to lady Tsunade when I'm done. Could you pass along a message to her for me?"

The woman nodded.

"Tell her Sasuke Uchiha has made managed to make contact with us; I swear if I can crack this it'll be in time for the team dispatched to Sunagakure returning" Sakura instructed, already going to the book-lined shelves and pulling out several of them.

The woman seemed to recognise the name and immediately dashed out of the room. Sakura frowned in concentration over the piece of paper; the only thing she could make out was the indication that the message was for Naruto. She had stalked Sasuke enough in the past to recognise his handwriting, but this code was another thing entirely.

She'd never seen it before - it seemed like a kind of shorthand, but it wasn't one that she recognised. It was angular, and looked like it wouldn't be out of place in the ancient history books. Determined to decode the thing, she pulled up one of the thick reference books and began to work.

* * *

When Naruto woke up, the first thing that hit was the darkness; she didn't have the lamp any more. The next thing to hit her senses was the putrid stench that filled the room she had landed in after the floor-sliding scenario. The third thing was that her head felt like she had whacked it off of a rock...

Shuffling around in the darkness, her hands fumbled on either side of her, trying to get a feel for her surroundings. One of her hands brushed some rubble as she searched beneath her head and a thin wall that surrounded her. Her other hand fumbled on her other side and it stilled; what on earth was that? It was all slimy and rough... it was quite thin too and... Was that fabric?

Moving her hand upwards, she came across a round lump with odd protrusions and hollows covered in the same dry slime and fabric-feeling things. Growing sick of the darkness Naruto placed both her hands together to form a hand seal.

Before she could make a small hand held fire, the stench on her hands invaded her nostril and she felt nausea wash over her; what the hell was it? Pushing some of her fire-based chakra to her hands she made the small flame and held it up.

She was in a stone case of some kind - she had fallen through the top most likely - if the others on her left were anything to go by. Looking to the closest one she frowned at the runes carved into the surface of the slab; it was one of the rune scripts that had descended from the original and the most prominent of the symbols carved into the sooth rock was... Ea.

Naruto felt the blood drain from her face as she turned to look down at the opposite side; laid next to her in the stone sarcophagus was a rotting human skeleton, bandages of mummification dropping into the still slightly gooey gaps between its drying bones.

Naruto did the only sensible thing anyone in her situation would do; she screamed very loudly.

* * *

Ino shot out of a square opening high in the wall and crashed onto the floor below with a loud thud.  
"Just a hallway my ass!" she growled, pulling herself up.

On shaking feet, she regained her footing after a few attempts of unsuccessful wobbling. She had to get out and find Naruto, or find Naruto and get out since all the scribbles on the wall were useless to her. She didn't know how exactly, but some time during the hell slide there had been a junction.

That meant she would have to actually find Naruto; pushing out her mind, she was glad to find that Naruto was still part of her network - she didn't seem to a weak presence, so that meant she wasn't too badly shaken up. Good; that meant she could kill her when she caught up.

Picking up the lamp, which seemed to have ended up with her, she looked around and found herself in what looked like an old library - there were dusty scrolls lining one of the walls, and a crumbling wooden table at the other end of the room.

Finding the room itself was definitely more by sheer dumb luck than any actual skill, but Ino was never one to waste an opportunity. She pulled out a blank scroll and laid it on the table. After scribbling down some storage seals, she attacked the shelves and started sealing the scrolls into the blank one.

She was perhaps a third of the way into sealing the whole library when she heard a dull scream from another section of the bunker.

Ino's solution to the rune locks blocking her path was to pound through the walls till she broke them; it wasn't the best idea but not reading the runes themselves and having a blonde to find and kill, it was the best solution she could come up with.

There had been a close shave with one of those rolling balls no one ever expected in treasure hunting stories because it was so cliché, but she managed to survive; she wasn't quite sure how since she had been doing a lot of screaming, yelling, and cursing Naruto to the deepest depths of hell for dragging her into her creepy family bunker, but she had lived to tell the tale.

She had been surprised it had worked given her first useless attempt on the entrance, but she supposed the creepy bunker didn't think any more doors like those would be necessary, given the genetic requirements needed just to unlock the thing.

The giant rock was probably just a fail-safe.

Concentrating on Naruto's consciousness - which was a little scattered from panic at the moment - she blasted through one of the walls once more and finally found the blonde girl in the middle of room filled with... stone boxes?

"All right, what in the name of fire is this place?" Ino asked in a resigned tone.

She was considering giving up on trying to make sense of the place altogether; she'd found a freaking operation lab and a rotten-eggy smelling cold spring earlier on in her destructive search; why not a room of giant stone boxes? A dull rumble from the floor below jerked her out of her musings; that was probably not good.

"I think that means we should skidaddle..." she ventured.

Receiving no answer from Naruto, she crossed through the stone containers warily; they looked kind of eerie all lined up together like this. Getting closer to Naruto, she caught the pungent stench and made a face; if that wasn't something stinky she didn't know what was.

Naruto's slumped form explained why there was no answer; there seemed to be a little blood on her head. After a quick check she deemed it to be nothing more than a flesh wound - probably thanks to the Kyuubi. That meant she had to be awake a while ago, the Kyuubi was slower to heal during sleep.

Peering over the edge of the broken box Naruto was slumped against answered against answered her questions and she jumped back, dragging Naruto with her and away from the disgusting remains inside.

"Ew! Yuck; that's just disgusting! What the hell is a freaking mausoleum doing down here?" she asked the walls as she hurried along the healing of Naruto's wound. With a jolt to her mental chakras from her friend, Naruto was awake with deep inhalation of the stale air.

Catching sight of Ino, she looked around the room again and relaxed a little.

"So what happened to you?" Ino asked.  
"I woke up nest to a rotting corpse after whacking my head on his sarcophagus; you?"  
"I found a library - I sealed up all the scrolls by the way - after I fell out of that death slide, and a few other rooms when started looking for you! I'm so going to tear you a new one for thi-"

There was a rumble once again, and small pieces of rock and dust trickled from the ceiling. Naruto gave Ino a suspicious look as she walked back to the sarcophagus; she looked down at the inscriptions and found more of the original scripts, more of the runes named after old gods.

These runes... they were keeping the body from rotting away completely. Thinking about it, she should have just seen a dusty skeleton when she woke up, but this guy was still mushy in some places. There was no coincidence between the two; Naruto made a promise that she would buy Gaara a whole bunch of cacti plants after thing settled down.

Taking out a scroll, she unfurled it and wrote out the basic formula for preserving a human corpse with the scroll.

"Gimme a hand with this guy Ino; I think he might be a big shot of some kind..."  
"But-"

There was another rumble, interrupting Ino's objection.

"-this place sounds like it's about to collapse!"

she protested even as she crossed the room to help slide the scroll beneath the rotting skeleton; both girls wrinkled their noses, and Ino gagged as the motion released a fresh wave of decay that smothered their noses. With a once the body was sealed away, Naruto quickly rolled it up.

"Okay, let's get out of this creep hole!" Naruto said, heading for the doorways Ino had created on entering the room.

Dashing out into the corridor, the two girls - Naruto - followed the cryptic instructions on the wall, hurrying to find the exit. As they ran through the corridors, the sound of water rose from beneath their feet. Naruto stopped and stared down at the sandy water that was trickling over the floor.

"Ino, when you said you searched... what exactly did you do?" Naruto asked.

Ino gulped, but the tone in Naruto's voice was not to be ignored and she was quick to reply.  
"I just bashed the walls in... I can't read these things so it was the best plan I could think of..."

Naruto's face darkened.  
"How many?"  
"Um... a few" in replied absently, not looking Naruto in the eye.  
"How many is a few Ino?" Naruto asked her foot making wet tapping sounds as her impatience grew.

Ino gulped again.

"I Dunno… about... 20? Give or take?"  
"Twenty? Ino this place is full of booby traps! Why didn't you just wait until I came looki-"

Naruto's admonishing yell was drowned out by the crash of walls around them breaking as a suppressed wall of water finally broke free.

* * *

Naruto spat out the water that had invade her mouth as she finally surfaced; looking around she identified the location as one of Suna's cold springs - no one wanted hot springs in the desert, and water was such a rarity not even Gaara had his own bathroom. Everything was communal here in Suna to try and save their meagre supplies.

At night however, the desert was like an ice field, and the water was just as could. Her teeth began to chatter as she hurried to the side of the spring.

Moments later she heard Ino spluttering for air.  
After succeeding in clambering out she offered her hand out to Ino, not failing to accompany it with a glare Sasuke would have been proud of.

"All right, all right! That one was my fault!" Ino whined through her shivers.

Naruto continued to glare at her the rest of the journey back to the rooms they had been provided with.

* * *

After arriving back in Konoha, Ino immediately took the body Naruto had brought with them to the hospital, here it would stay in the preservation room until she had the time to start an autopsy on it. Naruto took her the scrolls Ino had sealed and locked them up in her own lock combination safe to be examined at a later date.

They were given more pressing news by Tsunade; Sasuke had managed to get a message to them.

"I've tried thirteen different keys, four different scriptures, and every source imaginable, and I've even asked Shiho-sempai to have a look at it; neither of us have any idea how to decode it, but the fact it has your name on means you might recognise the script" Sakura stated, handing Naruto the piece of paper she held in her hand.

it was old runes all right, but out of order wasn't the word; the simple way to code runes was to misplace the order they were written in, but Sasuke would have placed a letter key on these as well; she needed one word to apply to the others before she could even begin rearranging them.

It was a generic Konoha messaging system all ninja knew for situations juts like this, and the keys were normally indicated trough a clue of some kind - such as a drawing, or something included with the message that would only be understood by the recipient - but there was nothing.

"I recognise it - it's one of the runic alphabets used in sealing..." Naruto told Tsunade and the pink-haired cryptographer.  
"That explains why we couldn't read it then - I know nothing about seals except for scrolls" Sakura grumbled.

"...but I don't know what the letter key is" Naruto finished glumly.  
"Let me see..." Ino took the paper from her hands and scanned it in her own eyes

Naruto gave up the paper and watched as Ino chewed her lip in concentration.

"Why is it only your name that's written in normally?" she asked after a few moments pondering.  
"To make sure Naruto gets it of course" Sakura snorted.

Ino shook her head.

"Even if it hadn't been on there, this would have ended up in Naruto's hands eventually; Sasuke wouldn't have specified if he didn't mean something behind it..."

Naruto couldn't argue with her reasoning, and took the piece of paper again; beside her name was a small addition sign inside two circles - it was a letter addition encoding then. Counting the places of her name characters in the alphabet, she totalled eighty nine. Looking for the relevant rune in the message her face fell; it was the same amount.

"It doesn't work - the total is too big!" she swore.

"Calm down Naruto, I have another copy so you can take that with you on the mission to Tenchi bridge - if you find anything you'll be able to send word back to us; I'm certain Sakura is going to be fighting tooth and claw to decode this" Tsunade interjected.

"Hell yes; I never been stumped by a code yet!" the girl muttered angrily, glaring at the piece of paper in Naruto's hand.

Naruto sighed.

"I'd forgotten about that, but what about Scarecrow?" she asked.  
"Yeah, he hasn't recovered from the Mangekyo yet" Ino added, looking as equally confused.

Tsunade smirked.  
"Who said you'd be going with Kakashi?"

Ino recognised the glint in her teacher's eyes and shivered. Tsunade gave them the instruction to wait at the bridge for their new team-mates, and they headed for the door feeling no less confused.

"Naruto, before you go, I think you should know something about that message!" Sakura called out.

"Sakura-"  
"I'm sorry Tsunade-Sama, I really am, but I think Naruto needs to know how that message got here!" Sakura retorted respectfully; after interrupting her village leader, she turned to Naruto and resumed topic.

"That message is in Sasuke's handwriting, but it was one of Deidara's messenger figurines that delivered it" she stated.

Naruto stared at her for a moment, before giving her a small smile of thanks, and following Ino out of the office.  
Sakura's bravado died moments later when she realised she had just interrupted the Hokage.

* * *

"Itachi! You're coming with us? I thought you were still in the ANBU!" Naruto cried in surprise, running up to give the man a hug - she would get him back to being more visibly emotional - if only for Ino's sake - even if it took years.

He was dressed a little differently to the usual Jonin - his shirt was a paler blue, and his vest black; instead of the generic swirl, they were adorned with Uchiha fans instead. He still carried his short sword and arm guards from the ANBU though.

"Tsunade-Sama pushed my resignation through; I'll be coming on most of your missions from now on" he explained.

Naruto's nodded, her mind going of on tangents of turning the tables on Ino and setting her up for a change; the only reason she hadn't killed her yet for that _'accident' _back before their first team meeting was because it had been something of a trigger for everything that preceded it.

Ino however was thinking of other matters; she didn't believe for an instant this was a random appointment. Itachi had been worried about Naruto before they had set off for sand, and those scratches on his face that had yet to heal were suspiciously claw-like.

It was not a shot in the dark to suggest this was his own way of keeping her out of trouble, but he would have had to explain things to Tsunade. Was he really that worried?Memories of their first night in Suna and the ones on the road preceding it flashed in her mind, and she decided that yes, Itachi probably was that worried.

She discarded the thoughts for later as two more figures arrived - a brown haired man with a mask on his forehead and the edges of his face, and a boy who was only barley more covered than her brother - Inoro ran around in a haori and shorts, and sometimes he forgot the haori.

"Nice to meet you all; I'm Yamato and this is Sai" the taller man introduced himself and his companion.

"Who are you?" Ino asked bluntly, not recognising either of the two ninja that had approached them out of the blue.  
"You're not that sharp are you, bimbo?" the boy asked, a smile on his face.

Ino looked like she was trying to suppress a conniption fit for several moments as Naruto gawped at the boy in front of them - that was the weirdo who had attacked her when he ran into team 10!

"Y-You! You're the perverted groping git from earlier!" she yelled in horror.

she had not been happy when he had unzipped the front of her dress - she wasn't wearing her mesh shirt because it was too warm today, so she only had her bandages and mesh leggings on beneath it. He had the nerve to push her over and grope her too, leaving before she could get a chance to kick him in the nuts!

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to seen how skilled you were, though I wasn't expecting you to be that flat, Miss No-boobs" he replied with the same smile he had given Ino.

Naruto spluttered, Itachi looked like he was regretting his decision already, Ino was still struggling to hold herself back from sending the bastard into next week, Yamato was giving Sai an exasperated look, and Sai was still smiling; the same thought was in all their minds.

It was going to be a very long mission.

* * *

"What the hell was that old bat smoking when she put this half-assed Sasuke clone on our team?" Naruto muttered.

She and Ino were hanging back from the other three ninjas in the group - it had been fine having Itachi with them, and that Yamato guy was alright even if his eyes were a little creepy, but Sai was a different matter entirely.

"Solidified sake probably; I really hate that guy, he's an absolute git! And his mind is weird; I keep getting these flat vibes from him all the time…"

She glanced towards Sai's back and shivered; it really wasn't a feeling she enjoyed, he was just so... blank. It was as if he had no feelings whatsoever compared to the normal fluctuations she would pick up. It felt horrible to her, and was the constant sensation she was receiving was beginning to give her a headache. And besides, he called her a bimbo!

"But what do you mean he unzipped your dress?"  
"We met before I got to the meeting point and he unzipped it in the middle of the fight, and I only have bandages today! He's a freaking pervert! He groped me!" Naruto growled lowly.

She was trying to keep herself from being overheard; she hated the new guy to the core, but she didn't want a lecture form Itachi, or worse - Yamato.

"The worst thing is that he's almost a freaking clone of Sasuke, but he's a git, so he makes Sasuke look bad!" She added.  
"Wasn't Sasuke a perv too? Remember when you tried the sexy technique on him in the hospital?"  
"Yeah, but Sasuke has more class; he doesn't really do the PDA thing remember? He wouldn't actually grope me in public like that!" Naruto muttered.

Ino couldn't argue with that.

* * *

"I don't care! He's not our team-mate! There only one other person on team seven and that's Sasuke! He's nothing more than fodder for the ranks!" Ino yelled back to Yamato.

Ino had finally gotten tired of all the flat vibes he was sending her and she had exploded. Yamato had tried acting as a peace keeper when Itachi did nothing to stop the confrontation; he hadn't liked Sai all that much, but he'd kept it polite - just not quite polite enough to stop Ino's temper from exploding.

"Good; I would want be liken to a weak little boy who walked into such an obvious trap, especially not one lusting after his own sister."

Sai replied with a smile and the air suddenly seemed to drop to very cold temperatures as Itachi's gaze snapped towards him. He stepped towards the boy, but was halted when Naruto walked up instead.

"I'm sorry Sai, I didn't hear what you just said - I think I've still got sand in my ears from my last mission - could you repeat that for me?" she asked with a genial smile.  
"I said I wouldn't want to be likened to a weak little boy who fell for such an obvious trap, especially not one lusting after his own sister Miss No-Boobs" he repeated with another smile.

Naruto sighed with relief.

"Good, I thought I'd misheard you!" she grinned.

Sai's smile was wiped off his face when she briskly and sharply brought the heel of her boot up between his legs; he fell to the floor with a visible wince and she kicked him in the side. Fury evident on her face, she bent down and pulled his face to her eye level by his short black hair.

"I don't know how the hell you know that, but you dare pass judgments on him again I can promise you that crushed balls will be the least of your worries!" she snarled, a little bit of the Kyuubi's chakra seeping out, thickening her nails, teeth, and whisker marks, turning her eyes a malicious slitted red.

Happy she had got her point across she dropped him and gave him another kick for good measure. Ino walked up to him herself and stared down at him, almost matching her team-mates fury on her face.

"And if you breathe a word of _that_ to anyone, after I'm done with you, you'll spend your days drinking eating through a straw thinking you're a cockroach!" she hissed.

With that she turned on her heel and skipped ahead to catch up with Naruto - until a very irate Yamato trapped all of them in a wooden cage.

* * *

Ino closed the door to her shared room with Naruto quietly and leant back against it; Sai's words earlier had had more of an effect than she had thought. Even with the sleeping pills she had forced down her friend's throat, she was still unnaturally restless - she had thought they had been working on the way back from Suna but that theory was shot to hell.

She was going to kill that Sai bastard the next time she saw him for this! When Yamato was busy elsewhere though - no way was she pissing of Mr. Creepy-Eyes again.

Pushing aside he not-quite-murderous thoughts, she headed down the hallways towards the male section of the rooms provided by the onsen, and knocked on Itachi's door; she need answers about all of this, and she was certain he would have them. After a few moments he opened the door.

"Ino? What do you want at this time of night? You should be sleeping for tomorrow" he asked, frowning a little in confusion.  
"Can I come in? I have something I want to ask and I don't want to talk about it in the hallway" she replied, fidgeting a little and trying to keep her eyes on his face.

Why wasn't he wearing a shirt or something? He held open the door and she moved inside quickly, more to keep her eyes on something else than out of fear of being spotted in by the management or worse, Sai or Yamato.

"What was it you wanted to talk about?" he asked, closing the door.

Ino took a seat on the end of the rolled out futon mattress and looked him directly in the eye.  
"Naruto gave you those scratches in her sleep didn't she?"

He visibly tensed up before taking a weary seat next to her.  
"I'd been hopping it was just the once but I'm guessing that not the case?"

Ino shook her head, pulling up her knees and hugging them for the calm and warmth they supplied.  
"They aren't always that bad, but I still have to force some sleeping pills down her throat every night; I had to give her two tonight because of that git were stuck with" she replied.

Itachi was silent as he absorbed the new information.  
"What are they Itachi? I know nightmares when I see them, and I can tell those aren't normal, and how does that git know Naruto's your sister?" she asked, grip on her lower limbs tightening.

Her frown deepened as Itachi explained everything he had discussed with the remaining sannin and her father to her; Ino didn't know which she hated more, the Sharingan or Akatsuki. They both seemed to be the source of Naruto's problems, Sasuke's problems, Itachi's problems, and by relation her problems.

She'd have to talk to Tsunade about a stronger sleeping concoction, but the sleeping pills she had with her would have to suffice for now.

"What about Sai?" she asked.  
"My father may have cast a memory reconfiguration over the village, but Danzou is skilled enough to... avoid it; Sai is his subordinate, a spy" he explained, and Ino's mind filled up the rest for her.

Perfect. Just bloody perfect; now their own village was set out to get them too? Ino's head sunk onto her knees and she barley notice her body slumping against Itachi. She knew how to handle enemy ninja, demons, and even less than normal family relationships. Enemies from within? Not so much.

Ino's clan was irrevocably linked together, only thoughts she wished to keep private remained private, and there was an explicit trust between her family members that no one would press to explore those memories - when even their homes were linked with underground passageways, it was essential that trust remained for them to remain sane.

The idea of someone from their own village spying on them was completely abhorrent to Ino.

"I don't know how to help her with this Itachi; I've tried looking for them but, there's absolutely nothing - she completely blocks it out when it's over, and I can't get in during them, but now this too?" she mumbled

She felt an arm on her shoulders.

"I don't now either; it would be so much easier if I could remember what my father blocked from my mind but... I feel like I'm fighting blind even though I know the problem" he replied.  
"Some Uchiha you are then!" Ino replied, grinning up at him weakly.

The ghost of a smile he gave her was magnetic; somehow in the middle of the serious stuff, he'd ended up hugging her, letting a little bit of his rarely seen vulnerable side, and now a smile? Before she had even registered what she was doing she was kneeling up on the futon to gain the height she needed, and had awkwardly pressed he lips to his.

After a few moments, it was returned just as awkwardly; though slow to start, both eventually began to grow comfortable with the new situation they found themselves in. Itachi, his mind completely blank and going by what seemed to feel good, probed out with his tongue against Ino's lips.

Ino parted her lips after a few moments, and felt the graze of his tongue against her own as she was gently pushed down onto the futon by a foreign hand on her side.

Then her eyes - which had completely closed of their own accord - opened wide. What on earth was she doing? There was a time and place, and in the middle of a mission was not the time, though the place wasn't all that bad. Apparently Itachi was having similar thoughts, because he pulled his lips back looking very confused.

"I-I- You- Err-" Ino stumbled over the word that failed to fully form on her lips for a few moments, staring up at the face hovering above her.

Ino did the only rational thing that came to her mind; she scrambled out from underneath him and dashed for the door with a short wish for good rest. Itachi stared at the futon for a few moments in complete shock before reality hit him like gravity once again; he stared at the door Ino had just fled through before flopping back onto his futon feeling confused frustrated, and a little stupid.

* * *

"So good to see you again Itachi, it's been quite a while since we last chatted like this, has it not?"

Orochimaru greeted Itachi as he and Yamato broke free from their Sasori shell.

"Not that you remember it do you? Your father erased your memories after all"

Itachi glared at the man in front of him his Sharingan exuding the malice and sheer hatred he had for the man. The slimy man sneered at Itachi mockingly and Itachi felt himself loosing grip of his self control - they had come her to deal with a spy, but that spy was a double agent, and now he had Orochimaru to deal with.

Taking care of Orochimaru would be easily, he remembered being good enough to give the man a run for his money when he was younger, before memories of Naruto and those surrounding them had been eradicate by his father.

* * *

Ino clenched her mesh covered hand over Naruto's as she watched Orochimaru appear from nowhere in front of Itachi. This was not in their plans at all, a spy they could handle, but Orochimaru himself? Itachi could probably handle him, but much as she hated to admit it he was the only link to Sasuke they had now.

That and she didn't like all the negative sensations she was picking up from Naruto; Ino glanced towards Naruto out of the corner of her eye and felt her blood chill; the Kyuubi's fangs and whickers were already thickening through her own features, and she could feel her nails growing underneath her the fingers around her hand.

That wasn't what bothered her though; all the sensations Naruto's thoughts were giving her indicate some sort of inner turmoil that was by no means entirely the fight for control with the Kyuubi. She could feel the Kyuubi, yes, but it was not all she could feel.

Just beneath the combined thought of Naruto and the fox was something else, something horribly familiar to the feel of Sasuke's cursed seal. She glanced to the two renegade ninjas standing in front of Itachi and Yamato and saw the smirk that had been growing on Kabuto's face widen.

Her hand began to burn and she jerked her hand away from Naruto's, turning her gaze back to her friend; the Kyuubi chakra was manifesting thick and fast. A glance at Naruto's face again though... it showed all the signs of focus and concentration. Ino then saw the darkening line on Naruto's neck, and everything fell into place.

Snarling, Naruto burst from their hiding place, heading straight for the four ninja's stationed on the bridge.

* * *

Itachi badly wanted to tear the man to pieces - he was certain he would be able to handle the man now - but... if they killed him, they would have no idea where to begin looking for Sasuke; there may be techniques that would kill his brother if Orochimaru died - it was the sort of thing Orochimaru found entertaining.

But right now the problem was Naruto; he could sense the beginnings of the Kyuubi chakra in the air even from this distance. He understood her rage - he felt it himself - but this much was dangerous; she could easily loose control over the Kyuubi in her current frame of mind.

Before he could make a signal, Naruto burst from her hiding place, three tails of chakra completely surrounding her in a thick malicious red haze. She missed him by inches as she lunged for Orochimaru, and he felt the edge of the malignant chakra biting into the skin of his arm as she passed.

Something unsettled him though, even as she grew closer to Orochimaru she began to slow; he would have passed it off as controlling the Kyuubi, but Naruto wouldn't slow on Orochimaru even if she was fighting with the demonic creature inside her.

Her clawed hand bit into the concrete of the bridge and she tuned, heading straight towards him. He dodged the attack and watched as the concrete he had just been standing on was crushed by the pressure of the Kyuubi chakra. Had she lost control of the Kyuubi already? Jiraiya had told him she could handle three tails worth but he wondered if that was accurate.

"Aren't drugs a marvellous thing?" Kabuto asked

He watched with a sinister smile as Naruto turned on Yamato log enough for Itachi to stare at the grey-haired medic. A brief memory flashed through his mind, something he had never received a proper explanation for after Naruto had woken from her fight with Sasuke.

"_What happened Naruto?"  
"__Kabuto's fucking drugs is what happened!"_

"I don't even need the connection with Sasuke's curse seal when she's this close" Kabuto added.

The horrible realisation was choking; this was what had caused Naruto's near deadly sleep terrors? Itachi abandoned any thought of confronting Orochimaru, instead tuning to Kabuto. He'd have to hope Yamato could suppress the Kyuubi when it wasn't Naruto who was controlling it.

* * *

Ino dodged another swipe from Naruto's chakra covered clawed hand. Things had gone down hill, drastically; Yamato had been knocked out when Naruto had unleashed a wave of chakra, sending ham crashing into the cliff face - they were lucky he hadn't fallen into the canyon itself.

Now she was fighting for her life all by herself, no thanks to Sai. The miserable git was doing nothing to stop Kabuto of try bring Naruto back to rationality, he was simply dodging. Itachi seemed to have cottoned on, than god, but unless he finished Kabuto of quickly, she wasn't certain she would be able to hold out.

Naruto's eyes had darkened to black on her sclera, and the glowing eerie red was growing impossibly large - her pupil was completely gone, a sure sign that things were progressing beyond the point of return.

"Sai, if you remember anything about what it felt like to have your brother taken away from then get over here and actually help!" she screamed to the boy hovering high above her on the back of an ink-created bird.

"If you know what that feels like, then should be able to imagine what Naruto and Itachi are going through! Please help us! I don't care what kind of motives you have in the long run, just help us now!" she roared, dodging another blow aimed towards her from the increasing red mass.

Ino had barley enough time to regain her footing again before a blast of chakra from the red mass that had blotted out Naruto's senses threw her from the bridge. Air rushed passed her as gravity hurtled her towards the bottom of the canyon.

_"Ino!"

* * *

_

_**Poor Sai; nobody loves him right now.**_

_**I don't like Yamato. He's useful and all, but I just can't stand him for some reason; I'm not overley fond of any of the Jonins to be honest, though I prefer **__**Kakashi**__** out of them for the most part. Besides, Yamato's **__**abilities**__** would get in the way of the events I have planned for the next chapter.**_

_****_

Yes, I like cliff hangers too.

_**Hope you liked!  
Nat.  
xxx**_


	5. Act V: The Labyrinth

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS

* * *

**

**ACT II: SCENE V  
~ THE LABYRINTH ~**

**

* * *

**

Ino heard Itachi calling out as the air rushed past; if she could gather her chakra before she hit the bottom of the canyon, she might be able to soften the impact a little. Her hand would be blown to smithereens, but if it was a choice between a hand and death she would pick her hand any day of the wee-

Ino felt a swooping sensation as she was plucked from the air and pulled onto the back of the white creation that could only be Sai's ink bird. Ino stared at the spy that had just pulled her onto the back of his technique. She had thought he would just have let her fall...

"I owe Danzou-sama a lot, but I guess I remember a little of what loosing my brother was like; looking at Naruto now, I think that's the only way those sort of feelings could he expressed, though I could be wrong - I don't really have any after all" he informed her quietly.

Ino listened intently, wrapping her arms around his bare waist to avoid falling again as they flew back up towards the bridge. Gaining a bird's eye view once again showed Itachi still battling with Kabuto - he was having some trouble with the man's medically lethal hands.

"Where's Naruto?" Ino asked, looking around the canyon.  
"Orochimaru is gone too..." Sai noted, glancing down himself.

Ino looked around past the deep valley; her gaze settled on a thin line of red chakra billowing into the air on the other side of the bridge, beyond the line of trees that grew on the other side, and her stomach sank.

"That way!" she pointed.

Sai wasted no time in flying directly towards the stream of thick malicious chakra. Ino could feel the tingling gnaw of the chakra in the air as they drew closer, and the malignant vibes she had felt earlier had a difference to them; the feel she had come to associate with Sasuke's cursed seal was fading even as they drew closer, but the Kyuubi was still increasing.

The blast of chakra hit them full force, and the ink bird failed to draw any closer to the scene of events just beyond their sight. Ino considered their options - they could draw closer on foot, but she knew her mind transfer technique was useless on Naruto when she was using the Kyuubi chakra.

She could go back and heal Yamato, but she felt that she needed to keep a check on Naruto too. If she was right, then Orochimaru was the one fighting her right now, and Orochimaru - as lazy as he seemed with the role - was an Akatsuki.

"I think Yamato-Sempai is the only one equipped to deal with this... Look..."

Sai pointed to a shadowy silhouette that had emerged from the smoke on the ground below them; Ino stiffened seeing the four thick lines emerging from it instead of the three that had been there before. Something bubbled together in front of it before being swallowed.

"Sai, get us out of here!" she yelled.  
Sai didn't think twice about following her directions.

* * *

Itachi kicked Kabuto in his midsection with enough brute force to send him across the broken bridge and crashing into the trees. Seeing he was suitably unconscious, he looked toward the direction Naruto had gone in, chasing Orochimaru.

Maybe using Tsukiyomi and a bit of Amaterasu had been a bit much for such a slimy man, but he wanted to be certain he was out of their hair. He hadn't killed him; Ino could send him back to Konoha for Ibiki and her father to pay with.

He hoped rendering Kabuto unconscious would relax the control they had over her enough for her to come out of the Kyuubi state herself; Yamato was still slumped on one of the ledges on the cliff face, completely knocked out. He'd seen Ino flying towards Naruto with Sai, so his earlier worry was gone for the moment.

There was a tremendous crash and Itachi watched a dark red light blasting into three huge shielding gates; that was anything but good. Yamato was their only hope now but Itachi could see blood pooling around his head - even if he was woken up, he would be in no fit state to be using the first Hokage's restraining techniques.

Sai's bird swooped down onto the bridge, pausing just long enough to let Ino jump off. Itachi didn't bother to hesitate in giving her a short relieved squeeze; he'd thought only his siblings could draw that much horror from him, but he had been proven wrong when he saw her being thrown from the bridge.

"Itachi, Naruto's gone into four-tails!" she told him after the brief show of affection ended.

This was... What did Naruto say? This was being up shit creek without a canoe, let alone a paddle. Jiraiya had specifically waned him about going past three tails; he had almost died during an encounter with four of them, and Jiraiya was a much stronger ninja than him.

Sai returned with Yamato secured in the claws of his ink creature. After gently depositing the man down on the ground, he dispelled his technique. Ino immediately let her hands be enveloped in a green glow, repairing all the damage to the side of his head.

"This is bad... I can't heal him properly here; he needs to be in a ward with Kiba... His chakra manipulators have been completely crushed by the impact on the rock..."

"You can't wake him up?" Sai asked.  
"I can, but even if I do, he won't be able to manipulate his chakra for weeks…" Ino mumbled.

She could try the procedure herself in a better time and place, but that was the problem. Yamato needed detailed and time consuming medical attention, which she was not in a position to give him at the moment. Taking a few moments to go over her options, she finally gave Naruto the priority.

Biting her thumb, she slammed her hand onto the earth, calling out her family summons; a large hedgehog perhaps a few inches taller than Gamakichi was now appeared.

"Spike, I want you to take him back to Konoha in your stomach! Take him to Tsunade-sama immediately; he needs to have repairs on his chakra manipulators, and I can't do that here!" she instructed.

The hedgehog gave a nod before swallowing Yamato whole; like the slugs of her mentor, the hedgehogs of the Yamanaka clan were healers, but they were only slightly less proficient as the toads in actual battle. Spike's stomach would delay any further progression of Yamato's injuries until he could be attended to by a medic.

Watching as the summon curled into a large spiked ball and whirled away in the direction of Konoha, Ino took a deep breath and turned to her remaining team-mates to explain her decision. Before she could, the miniature, four-tailed version of the Kyuubi was slammed into the overhang Yamato had been laid on only moments before.

* * *

The three remaining members of team seven that still retained their wits spread in a half circle in front of the four tailed Naruto; Itachi felt sick seeing his sister in such a form.

He dodged a vicious blow from a quickly extended clawed hand. He wasn't sure what Ino was plotting, but she seemed to be contemplating something. Sai, he wasn't fully convinced about that boy yet; he was grateful he had saved Ino, but that didn't mean he trusted him.

"Sai, go catch up with Orochimaru! If we loose him, we loose our link to Sasuke!" Ino yelled, much to Itachi's horror.

Sai nodded and quickly created one of his ink birds; Itachi waited until he had passed to the other side of the canyon before turning with a reproachful look to the blonde.

"Ino, what on earth are you doing?" he asked, feeling the need for clarification as he jumped to avoid the crash on a chakra created tail.

"Sai obviously has business with snake face, so if we let him go, I can follow his vibes; they're so flat I can pick them out a mile away; that leaves us time to deal with Naruto!" Ino explained.

Itachi had to admit it was a sound idea, but it was still an idea.  
"The mind transfer won't work on Naruto like this, you already know that!" he protested.  
"I never said I would do anything, that's your job!" Ino yelled, shattering the earth with her fist in an effort to block Naruto from advancing any further.

Itachi knew what she was referring to; it was an old suspicion that the Sharingan could control demons; his mother had told him when he was younger. He had a Mangekyo Sharingan now, but he was reluctant to use it unless it was absolutely necessary. He had already used the black flames it the fight against Kabuto - that bug was as slippery as his snake of a master - and he didn't think using Tsukiyomi again would be of any benefit either.

It was a very risky gamble for Ino to take that he would be able to accomplish anything, but as it stood he was the only one who stood a chance of getting any sort of result.

"I'll leave the diversion up to you then" he replied

Ino grinned before charging directly towards Naruto, her fists charged with chakra. She dodged the slashing tails and hands that came towards her with cumbersome grace, before landing her fist directly onto Naruto's head. She exuded enough chakra to force the possessed girl to stumble, and shake a daze from her head.

Keeping up her assault, Itachi moved behind her, trying to find a moment Naruto remained still long enough for his eyes to bore into her own. It was difficult - keeping her distracted from his approach meant Ino had to move around a lot - but he eventually seized hold of a brief moment in which she snarled in his direction.

Taking care to keep his gaze firm, he pushed as much chakra into his activated Mangekyo as he could. At the same time, one of Naruto's tails smashed into Ino's gut as she paused to see if he had succeeded, sending her crashing to the ground.

In all the confusion, neither noticed as large snake slither up to Kabuto's unconscious form and swallow it whole before slithering back into the trees.

* * *

Itachi blinked as he plunged into a murky green aquatic substance; it gave of an eerie glow, and he wondered if he had missed, or maybe his Sharingan had backfired? He'd been inside an interrogation technique with Ibiki when he was a Genin, and the mind he had been inside had not included murky green water.

As he moved through the uncomfortably warm water, he could have sworn he was seeing things in the liquid; He saw images of himself and Ino, quite a few at the same time, of Deidara disappearing in a flash of light, his father...

The only conspicuous absences were those of Sasuke and her own father.

Not knowing whet else to do, he dived to the bottom of the pool; he found corridors at the bottom of the pool, each with pipes and electrics running along their walls and ceiling. One of them looked very dog eared - the wires were broken, ends glowing red amongst the murky green of the water, and pipes torn and viciously dented.

The lights in that corridor were smashed too. He decided to have a closer look when he heard crashing noises from emerging from it. He drew closer the tunnel entrance, and a grotesque creature with grey lunged from the murky depth of the tunnel, flapping its clawed wings and snarling with a black electric energy in hand.

Before it could get close enough to cause any damage, thick steel rods slammed down and across from the ceiling and walls. They glowed red hot, boiling the water around them, and the creature howled as it crashed into them. Itachi caught a decent glimpse of its face before it faded back into the depths of the sealed corridor, and his blood curdled.

There was no question that it was Sasuke, even mutated as he was. Ino was right; Naruto had completely suppressed those memories from he conscious mind. He didn't doubt that her memories of the ceiling were down that corridor too.

Deciding to come back to it later if he got the chance, he looked to the different corridors; the green glow seemed to be coming from one in particular, so he quickly swam in that direction. Turning a corner, he felt the temperature of the water increasing; that had to be a sign he was heading in the right direction.

After what felt like an age, he eventually entered a giant cavern of a room - giant boilers and generators hanging from the ceiling glowed red, the greenish tint leaking from them through broken pipes, judging by the bubbles and green concentration surrounding them.

The green was so thick, he almost moved right through the bars of the giant cage and into the waiting claws of the Kyuubi. The creature banged its clawed hand against the bars and Itachi saw the black marks on its fur. Knocking Kabuto out hadn't been much use then.

The creature's eyes levelled with his own; Itachi could smell the rotting stench of its breath even through the water. It was a truly monstrous creature, it was everything horrible that its chakra represented. He tried activating his Sharingan to be on the safe side but found it impossible.

_"Get rid of this foul disease!"_ it roared.

Itachi didn't see the growling moth move at all, and he guessed it was a mental connection. Alright, that was progress, but he had no idea how to do as the malicious animal demanded.

"I can't do that…" he thought, and he heard his own voice echo through the flooded room.

The crash of the animal against the bars sent a vibration of fury and malice through the water surrounding him.

_"You humans are disgusting creatures; unintelligent and corrupted things! You would let your own litter-mate continue to degrade into this hell!"_ the creature snarled, hurling itself against the bars of the cage again.

It paused, to glare directly into his black eyes.

_"You Uchihas are a plague on the world; your skulk is the most abominable of all humans - the blood in your veins is colder than that snake's no matter what how your chakra manifests! Vile creatures that go back on your own words, going against your own kind for those despicable eyes! You are a truly a skulk more malefic than my own!"_ it snarled.

It had an odd way of speaking, and was obviously not a fan of the human race in general; it definitely had some sort of grudge against the Uchiha clan too. Itachi wanted ask if that had something to do with Madara, but that was a discussion for another time.

"I made no implications of abandoning Naruto - I simply stated I don't know how to do as you instruct; though I will admit I am not eager to trust the words of a demon" he clarified.

He moved back from the cage as the Kyuubi slammed viciously against the cage bars to roar and snarl its rage; it used enough force to make the doors of the cage wobble.

_"You dare imply me to dishonesty? You, one of the Uchiha skulk, dare suggest such a thing to me? I am a demon, and I will take pleasure in ripping you and your fellow cubs' bodies to shreds when I finally free myself from this cursed prison, but I, unlike you humans keep to what I pledge!"_ it howled.

"I'm sorry to offend; I was merely taking precautions - though I am curios as to why you wish to go back under Naruto's control..." Itachi replied carefully.

The animal scowled, glaring at the foreign entity in its prison through the bars of the cell.

_"My revenge will **not** be dictated by a creature as menial as that snake; my chance will come again as long as the vixen searches for her alpha, as you are well. That I do promise you..."_ it drawled, malicious guarantee dripping in its voice.

Itachi dint see any other option than to listen to the creature; their motives seemed to tie together for the moment, but he didn't like the sound of what the monster was implying. He had no other options though, so he would just have to make sure to be on guard in the future.

"What do I do?" he asked

Itachi took a few strokes through the water towards the cage bars as a sign of good faith; he didn't want to offend the animal again. Even if they had similar interests right now, there was always the chance the Kyuubi could leave him to founder around the problem all by himself if it felt he had been insulted.

_"This chakra is not my own - it is merely what controls it through the vixen's bloodstream; it fades, but not with hast enough to keep your own vixen from my claws..."_

Itachi presumed _'his vixen'_ meant Ino, and that Ino was feeling the pressure outside of Naruto's mind in handling the four tailed form by herself. He'd have to hurry this up as much as he could – now was not the time to protest the creature's strange terminology.

_"Remove her from its control - take her above the chakra, and wake her up; I will not fight - though rest assured I only give my word for my own sake. This body is useless to me if it no longer functions…"_

The demon sat back on its paws and lowering its tails by a tiny fraction - it was a gesture of submission, for the moment at any rate. It was incomplete however and therefore held less value.

_"Search for the memories of her hunts, of her Alpha, pack mates, and your skulk - that is where you will find her" _it snarled.

Itachi nodded, turning in the water to go back the way he had just come from. 'pack mates' obviously meant her team, so _'hunts'_ presumably meant her fights. If _'skulk'_ meant family, then he had a very good idea of where to find her. Before he could completely turn away, the monster had one last message for him.

_"If you want your litter-mate to survive the next encounter with your cursed progenitor, then make sure you teach her the ways of your skulk's abominable vision!"_ it hissed, before retreating to the back of it's prison.

Itachi resumed his course back towards the first corridor he had seen; it didn't take him long to find it again, and he would admit he had some reservations as he entered the dark tunnel; he had no idea what he would see down here, he was surprised he had even managed to enter.

As he passed the place where the barrier had emerged before, the grey, mutated version of his brother snarled forwards once again before he could dodge, and... It passed right through him. It snarled and whirled around in the water, throwing itself against the barrier that had appeared once again.

Itachi wished he had his Sharingan, he felt a little unsafe without it. He had assumed he would have used it to control the Kyuubi, but maybe he had been wrong? No, he wouldn't have been able to get in otherwise. It probably had something to with Kabuto, or even Naruto.

Turning down one of the corners, he saw Sasuke again, looking as he had before he had disappeared. The illusion smirked at him before turning to disappear down one of the adjacent hallways. Itachi considered his options; he could wander a round aimlessly, or he could follow in the minuscule hope they would lead him to Naruto.

He turned and followed his brother down the murky hallways. It was like being in a morgue or a vault; there were cabinets in the wall similar to those found in the hospital; that was not what disturbed him though. Going past them, he began to notice patterns on their appearance.

Some had been torn into, leaving scratch marks behind on the dark surfaces, and one in particular drew his attention as he passed it. Blood leaked from the cracks in the door, and it dripped to the unseen floor somewhere far below him, catching on the units below and freezing in hard red crystals. He could feel a chill from it as he passed.

Others with similar scratched led him to believe that these were all memories, and all those with claw marks had something to do with the Kyuubi. The others weren't so bad, merely dented or singed around the edges. An odd few had no damage at all. After a few more minuets of following his brother, he found another worrying sight.

One particular row of cabinet had been completely torn through, the doors completely gone or curling at the edges from impact; the great scar across them looked very much like the gouge Sasuke had created in the wall of the chunin arena with his Chidori, and one of the walled containers had been completely blasted apart, tearing into the ones surrounding it.

He watched the illusion in front of him draw closer to one of the slightly less mangled walled cabinets, before fading completely into the dank eerie green glow of the water. Moving over to the door, he gave it a sharp yank, and pulled out the tray inside - thousands of pink pieces of paper spilled out into the water. Catching one he identified them as her birth certificates.

This was progress. As he moved to open another of the drawer cabinets, the mutated grey monster passed through him once again, and flew towards the large gaping opening of the exploded cabinet. It crashed against an invisible barrier several times before the wings and grey of its skin began to fade. It resumed his brother's real face, before plummeting to the dark depths below him.

He immediately swam upwards towards the gaping hole; peering into the dark interior her finally frond the girl he was looking for. He couldn't hear anything, but he could see her blowing her fists against the wall of the invisible barrier. The black marks so similar to Sasuke's cursed seal seeped from the water around her onto her skin, fluttering across it like deadly petals.

Considering he had been able to get in without fault, whilst the monster version of Sasuke had been unable to escape, he found it a reasonable assumption to believe he could do the same here. He reached forward with one hand and grasped hold of her own. With a tug, he found it easy to pull her out of whatever barrier had been in place.

Remembering the Kyuubi's words about the water, he immediately kicked his legs and propelled them both upwards through the water.

* * *

Ino placed a hand to her bleeding forehead as she pulled herself up from the ground she had just been sent crashing towards. Her head was killing her, and her vision was getting fuzzy, and her gut didn't feel too hot either. She glanced towards Itachi - he was frozen still as a statue, his face making odd expressions and blood trickling from his eyes.

Naruto was frozen in place, though it was easy to see her resisting at the same time with the way her claws gouged into the dirt. Gathering up her chakra she knit the tiny crack on her skull back together, followed by her skin, and felt her dizziness fading.

Itachi collapsed to the dirt gasping for air the same moment Naruto let out a howl of rage; the dark bloody red form began to shrink inwardly, and the burned body of Naruto began to emerge. Ino dashed forward her hands still glowing green and caught her before she hit the ground, immediately starting the healing process.

Itachi recovered from the strain that had been placed on his eyes quickly, though he remained a little wobbly on his feet. A glance out of the corner of her eye towards his expression didn't tell her much about what had happened, the concern was a given the extent of the damage the Kyuubi had caused Naruto.

"What happened?" she asked, pushing as much chakra into regenerating Naruto's skin cells as she could.

Itachi was silent for a few long moments, watching as Naruto twitched in reaction to the healing process. Ino guess his reluctance to answer was based on what he had seen in Naruto's mind, but... The sensations she was picking up from his mind were none too comforting.

"She's in pieces Ino, falling apart at the seams; that's the only way I could describe it without you seeing for yourself; it's going to take more than sleeping pills to fix her," he replied quietly.

Ino was relieved when Naruto began to come around; she didn't know what kind of reply she could give to a statement like that.

* * *

The crash as the hideout door closed alerted Sasuke to Orochimaru's return, and he immediately dropped his training to see what all the fuss was about; he could tell by the noise of the door and the oppressive feeling of the man's chakra that things had not gone according to his plans.

Creating a clone to roam the halls for him in his place, hiding at the top of one of the pillars that supported the ceiling, he watched as Orochimaru thundered into the main hall of the underground prison. Behind him one of his lesser summon followed, along with a black haired boy.

Some of the loyal rays rushed forwards; Sasuke watched in gleeful surprise as the snake made a choking sound before regurgitating Kabuto's body from its stomach. Kudos to the ninja who had ripped into the disgusting medic like that; he was covered in burns, and his eyes had a glazed quality to them, as if he was in a trance of some kind. He seemed to have at least one broken rib if those whit things poking out from his side were anything to go by.

Jumping from pillar to pillar, he finally settled on one closer to the scene below him, and listened intently under Jiraiya's observation technique - it really was useful, and it used so little chakra even a sensory ninja would only be able to detect it with deep concentration. He watched with his ears wide open.

"...That Kyuubi brat was more trouble than I had expected, Itachi too; had it not been for them...!"  
"For what it's worth, Itachi-sempai did use the second level of his Sharingan on him - he's lucky he can still breathe."

Sasuke's eyes widened; Itachi? Naruto? What were they doing here? Did they not get the message he had sent out? Or had they just come along anyway? And what was that black haired guy up to? He sounded as if he was part of the team, but he was talking to Orochimaru in friendly banter.

"Find Sasuke! Make sure those Konoha fleas don't find him when they arrive!" Orochimaru snapped.

The attendants dispersed down the various connecting halls, presumably in search of him. He waited until Orochimaru had finished talking and walked away with the guy from Konoha, before jumping down from his hiding place. Checking the coast was clear, he turned down one of the corridors.

He had to stay out of Orochimaru's clutches until Itachi and Naruto arrived; it hadn't been in his original plan at all, but Itachi knew a few things about sealing; he might be able to remove the addition to his seal even if not the whole thing. He'd have to go after Juugo himself if that was the case, but he would do it - Juugo had been an invariable source of sanity for him the past three years.

His clone sent back memories of being locked in the room he had been given for his stay, and Sasuke smirked. They wouldn't be fooled for long, but it would be long enough for him to find a decent place to wait for Itachi and his team-mates to arrive.

* * *

Sai waited till Kabuto had locked the door and the sense of his chakra had faded before pulling out a blank scroll - while he was still and agent of Danzou's, Naruto had inadvertently dug up his old emotion surrounding his own brother.

He'd mocked her before for being apparently weak, and for forming such an abnormal relationship with her sibling, but even if Kabuto had been manipulating Naruto's chakra, that anger had to come from somewhere. Then Ino had had her own say on things.

_"If you remember anything about what it felt like to have your brother taken away from then get over here and actually help! If you know what that feels like, then should be able to imagine what Naruto and Itachi are going through!"_

She was right; he knew exactly how Naruto and Itachi felt in a way. The only difference was they still had a chance with Sasuke. He had been in their shoes on missions with Shin, and he knew he had gone to the same extents that team seven was going to now.

he owed everything to Danzou - for all the man's faults he had given him a chance at life - but this was one time where he could not follow through with his mission; after watching for himself, he didn't think removing Sasuke from the picture would be of any benefit in giving Naruto better control over the Kyuubi.

It was the opposite, and there were no ifs, ands, or buts about that.

He finished drawing the inky black snakes as crashes resounded through the halls of the hidden hideout. Turning to the door, he have it a sharp kick with one foot; honestly, did Orochimaru really think simply locking the door would keep him locked inside?

Stepping over the door and into the hall he was greeted by his two irate blonde team-mates.

* * *

"I've already sent my animals out to search for Sasuke" he informed them.

Naruto, who appeared none the worse for wear after her Kyuubi transformation blinked at him for a few surprised moments before her brows set themselves in determination. There was no way she trusted Sai completely just yet, but Fire country had not been built in a day.

For now, she would accept his help; it wasn't much, but it was a start. Beside her Ino gave him a grin before focusing her chakra - Naruto knew she was pushing her mind outwards, searching for Sasuke's familiar presence. It was a long few moments for her - her muscles were burning from the use of the Kyuubi chakra earlier, and it was taking a lot of effort to keep standing.

After a few moments Ino's eyes opened. Tightening her fist, she turned towards one of the walls; with one blow, the mortar and rocks crumbled to dust. Flicking her head over her shoulder she turned to face them, looking like she had already won the war.

"Come on! It's this way!" she yelled.

She took off down the corridor she had opened up and off into the labyrinth of passages, and before Itachi could say something to stop her, Naruto was quickly snapping at her heels. She knew he was worried, but they were so close now, and she wouldn't let him stop her, even if he was her brother.

The passageways were identical - exactly identical in everything but direction. Several times Ino had to stop and search again to make sure they were heading in the right direction, or double back their steps to take a different route.

The frustration loosened her control of her chakra, and the red of the Sharingan flared into her irises. Gritting her teeth she waited once again for Ino to finish locating Sasuke. Before she took of again, Naruto grabbed her wrist.

"Which way is it in general?" she asked.

Ino pointed the direction to her, and Naruto pulled as much chakra into her palm as she could, before blasting her rasengan through the wall. Stepping over the rubble, she moved into the room - a plain one - before repeating the process.

"Naruto, what are you doing? We'll be heard!" Ino protested as she caught up with the blonde; sure she had blasted the wall earlier, but had been on spur of the moment.

"Orochimaru already knows we were coming Ino; we'd be fools to waste time being cautious when we could save time and get to Sasuke that much quicker this way!" Naruto replied, gathering her chakra once again.

Ino looked at Naruto with worry on her face; she didn't know if it was deliberate or not, but she could feel the traces of the Kyuubi's personality creeping into Naruto's, even if she couldn't feel its chakra yet. It would be disastrous if Naruto went into another transformation here...

And in any case, she'd made one hell of a point.

Ino brought her fist down on the wall once again, and as they clambered over the resulting rubble for the next wall, Naruto let out a long, loud, scream.

_"Sasuke!"

* * *

_

The cry was faint, but he heard it; her voice was older, a little more mature, but it was easy to distinguish that voice. She still threw all her emotion in to her words and the amount in that one call of his name was like a violent yank on a certain organ beneath his rib cage.

He immediately dispelled Jiraiya's technique, and with a near invisible flick of his sword, the ninja blocking his exit form Orochimaru's smaller experimentation lab were slumped on the floor. Breaking through the door and into the hallway, he strained his ears listening for her voice again as he headed in what he though was the direction it had emerged from.

he couldn't shake away the feeling of how desperate those short few syllables had been; he'd tried not to think about how being separated would have affected her - that lead to unpleasant thoughts, and to memories of their fight that he was not keen to think on - but he was certainly thinking now.

"Sasuke, for love of freaking fire, stop moving around!"

That was Ino; she was going to send him to hell and back when he found them he just knew it. He probably should have done as he instructed, but he didn't, and followed Ino's voice instead. It was still dull, but was perhaps a smidge closer than before. The problem was the maze of hallways; it was all he could do to summon his Sharingan right now.

one annoying little point of the seal additions was on tiny little rune that kept his chakra at the bare minimum needed for survival - that was why he had taken up his sword, and devoured the theory book whenever he had the chance; he wanted to be ready when he finally got his chakra back.

A loud crash to the west and the rise in Orochimaru's chakra alerted him, and he thanked the gods the maze of passageways allowed him to change course; the two didn't seem to be close by, so with any luck Orochimaru hadn't reached them.

"Sasuke!"

Naruto again; much closer than before; he wished he could use Chidori. He'd have the damn maze walls down in as second! As he raced down one corridor, he began to feel itchy, and then two familiar chakras began to overwhelm him. It was suffocating, being under the Kyuubi's chakra after so much time without free use of his own - never mind exposure to that of the monsters.

In a twisted way though, he had never been more relived to feel it; ignoring the biting on his skin, he headed directly to the source of it. There was another chakra accompanying it after all, and that one was an even grater welcome feeling.

It was hard following the Kyuubi chakra - it was thick, and covered a wide area, making the source difficult to find, but find it he did. Turning down one corridor, he immediately picked out Naruto's chakra on the other side of the wall; even smothered by the Kyuubi's chakra, hers was impossible to miss.

Without hesitation, he unsheathed his sword and began hacking away the walls; he may not have his chakra, but he still had brute force, and no mere wall was going to get in his way.

* * *

Another wall crumbled before as the whirling ball of chakra crashed into it; flicking her eyes around the room Naruto gave a growl of frustration, her irises turning a different kind of red to their current one.

They were close, very close; she could feel Sasuke's chakra nearby. Ino didn't have to concentrate to locate him any more either. Ino blasted another wall with her fist, and they dashed into another corridor. After a quick glance down either end, they both dashed down towards the left.

A rotting stench was emerging from one of the walls; Naruto distinctly hoped she would have to find out what was behind it, knowing what Orochimaru's habits included. Ino rushed forwards down another curve of the hallway, and Naruto urged her feet to catch up.

she did what she could to keep the Kyuubi in check, but feeling so close with nothing to show for their efforts just yet was torturous; the trickle that managed to escape was burning her veins and organs - she supposed this was due to the damage she had received from her earlier transformation.

Turning the corner they reached a dead end; no way forwards, and no sense of Sasuke's chakra beyond the wall. Naruto slammed her fist into the wall once again. They had reached solid bedrock by the lack of hollow sound that accompanied the blow.

"Damn it Sasuke, stop moving around!" Ino roared, whirling on her heels and darting back the way they had just come from.

Darting down to the right instead, Naruto's ears pricked up when another set of quick footsteps joined their own. Picking up the pace and beginning to charge her chakra into her palm - they may be impatient, but they couldn't be too careful here - she tore round the corner into an identical corridor.

Before long the footsteps grew louder, and just visible at the other end of the murky hallway a familiar pale face emerged. Taking one look at his face, Naruto upped her pace and rushed forwards, ignoring the burning in her gut.

"Sasuke!"

After a few brief rapid steps she wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling his own mimic her action; the impact of the gesture sent him crashing backwards onto the floor of the passage.

"You took your time" he grumbled, his head not leaving her shoulder.  
"There were a few distractions" Naruto replied, releasing him, and moving back from him.

Her smile completely disappeared into a malicious smirk as she drove her Rasengan into his chest.

* * *

_**Itachi totally owns Yamato, so he gets the Kyuubi controlling job. I had a lot of fun writing that bit; for those curios, the animal words the Kyuubi uses are from wikipedia articles on foxes. A skulk is a name for a group of the according to wiki, and an earth is the den they live in. **_

_**They don't have big family groups - just a dog, vixen and cubs usually, but they sometimes live in groups, and then they have a superiority system similar to wolves. The breeding pair is referred to as the alphas - for both dog and vixen, so that's how the Kyuubi refers to Sasuke in regards to Naruto.**_

_**I used cub because it is just as appropriate, and frankly, I think kit is overused; Thesauruses! Buy them! I swear, every time I see the word 'precious' and 'people' in the same sentence I want to strangle something. Anyone else feel that or am I just being picky again?**_

_**On the topic of thesauruses, I'm moving to dictionaries; I realise my grammar is not perfect and the odd word escapes my spell check, but my spelling in general is NOT American English. I use an English dictionary, an no offence the Americans, but to me that is the correct version of English. I spell colour with a 'U', I do not acknowledge 'panties' as a word, and I do not put 'Z' in words that end -isation.**_

_**Frankly, I think American English is a the brutal murder of the English language, and will not use it in my stories – if I do use it, you can rest assured it's because my spell-check is up shit creek. I don't object to it in other stories, but if I get another e-mail telling me that I spelled something wrong I will hunt the sender down and feed then to the sharks.**_

_**Seriously, no offence if you are American – this is just my personal opinion, and is directed only at a certain someone who thought they were being helpful by trying to identify spelling mistakes with a dictionary I will never ever use. Intentionally at least; American words are creeping into genuine English now, so I can never be certain the odd few won't pop up without conscious consent.**_

_**Oh, and if you think the Kyuubi is using such terms because he will eventually become a super teacher who loves Naruto, then forget it - I just wanted to get the fox thing into make it seem more like an animal. The promise thing is important; I got that from the Japanese folklore, and it will be very important later on, but the Kyuubi is a demon, and will stay a demon. Teacher-Symapthising-Kyuubi is so overdone, especially in gender-bender fics. If they do work together, it will be each for their own benefit and will remain mutually antagonistic.**_

_**As for Sasuke's no-chakra thing, Orochimaru said he would let him train yes, but while he is creepy the man is no idiot; Sasuke is for all intents and purposes a prisoner. Orochimaru isn't going to give him a decent chance of getting out even if he does let him keep in shape for his own benefit.**_

_**I can't think of anything else to comment on. Good; this authors note is way too long, and half of the people on this site are going to send the mob after me as it is, and if I keep rambling, I might actually die. Hope ya liked the cliff-hanger!**_

Nat.  
xxx


	6. Act VI: Transient Encounters

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

**

* * *

**

**ACT II: SCENE VI  
~ TRANSIENT ENCOUNTERS ~**

**

* * *

**

Naruto glared at the dark haired boy now impaled on her clawed hand.

This was the final straw; loosening her hold on the Kyuubi's chakra that had been lurking in the depths of her frustration, she pulled it out into her hand, and pushed it out of the palm digging into the man's heart. He screamed as the venomous burning chakra clawed into his heart, spreading through his blood to his other organs; a vein pulsed in his head as he grasped at the hand buried inside him in desperation.

Blood spat from his mouth, catching Naruto's thick whiskered face.

"Naruto, what on earth are you doing?" Ino shrieked, lunging forwards to pry Naruto hand from his chest.  
"Why don't you concentrate instead Ino?" Naruto his, digging her clawed fingers deeper into the squirming flesh beneath them.

Trying to ignore the screams emerging from his mouth, Ino concentrated on the boy's chakra; she instantly breathed a sigh of relief as Naruto threw the boy to the ground. There was a flicker, and the image of Sasuke completely dissolved into a stranger with the sound headband adorning his head.

Naruto snarled as she used the boost of the Kyuubi's chakra to kick the blood-dribbling body towards one of the walls; the odd smell emerging was revealed to be strange live-human stews as it crashed trough the wall.

Naruto had been pissed of lots of time before; Orochimaru kidnapping Sasuke, making her attack Ino and Itachi, and building this stupid un-navigable maze had been some of her more recent reasons, but using Sasuke's face to try and trick her? That she would not have at all.

Frustration growing, she formed a glob of the red chakra oozing into the few millimetres of air directly surrounding her into her palm, much to the horror of both the experimenting ninja's in the room and Ino.

"Where the hell is he you ass holes?" she demanded, voice thickening as the Kyuubi chakra entered her vocal cords.

She hurled the ball into the opposite wall, and Ino ducked behind the wall aside the first entry hole to avoid the horrendous blast of debris and human flesh it detonated with. Looking through to the new opening Naruto had created, Ino could see Sai standing in the middle of another hallway looking rather stunned.

This was not good, this was not normal, this was not _Naruto_; this drive of hers to find Sasuke was too strong. Naruto never acted like this, never killed. And she never ever drew on the Kyuubi chakra if she could really help it; this was almost voluntary! She was very eager to find Sasuke herself but this...

She could feel Sasuke's chakra to be incredibly close by, very close, and she knew Naruto could sense it too; maybe that was a factor in her sudden severity, but she still couldn't help but let worry. It was with a lot of trepidation that she followed Naruto towards the next wall with Sai; there was no way much desperation could be a good thing.

* * *

The loud crash immediately drew his attention from the other end of the hallway he was trying to hack his way through. Immediately dropping his chopping of the wall he turned on his feet and headed towards the source of the explosion.

He could feel Naruto's chakra much more clearly, though the Kyuubi's almost overpowered it. Orochimaru's was nowhere to be found either, he was probably on the other side of the building again. As he passed through the hallway, he found the giant gaping hole in the wall.

If that wasn't a signpost, then he didn't know what was; following the destruction, he ducked through the hole in the wall and over the accumulation of rubble. Eventually he began to notice other aspects of the devastation; what on earth was the Kyuubi doing to Naruto's mind?

He repressed the urge to vomit as he passed over a sound ninja with what seemed like the scars of the Rasengan in his chest. Giving the dead body a brief close glance, he could see physical evidence of his organs being... dissolved, or... or being eaten away... in a manner that the Kyuubi's chakra was so prone to doing.

Moving past the revolting corpse, he crossed through another of the holes; the wave of malicious chakra hit him instantly and the fiery smoke emerging from the rubble, mixing with the less than healthy fumes of obliterated experiments made him gag.

Had she blasted the place with the raw chakra? That was insane! He was beginning to wonder if it really was the Kyuubi who was using Naruto; everything he'd seen so far seemed to indicate the opposite. He'd never imagined Naruto to be capable of carnage like this...

Another much closer, much louder crash drew his attention, and he headed through the next hole, and the next, and the next. He heard an agonized scream and a loud snarl and upped his pace, blood curdling at the thought of what he was going to find. Naruto couldn't have caused all of this; Itachi? Definitely. Ino? Possibly - her family specialized in interrogation, but she wasn't that hard-hearted personally. Naruto? Hardly.

Turning the corner and through the last of the holes he saw sunlight; a small potion of the corridor had been completely blasted away by the cause of the blast. He could her more low snarls, and then another ear-splitting scream.

"Naruto, stop! He doesn't know anything! Please! Stop it! He doesn't know where Sasuke is, trust me, so just stop okay? This isn't like you at all!" Ino yelled, unseen but her voice recognisable all the same.

Dashing forwards, he felt the Kyuubi chakra again; it had always been a very emotive chakra, but the pleasure he could feel in it was disturbing. A happy Kyuubi was bad. Very, very bad. Getting closer to the new open air room, he could just make out the backs of Ino and the creepy kid from earlier.

Neither of them looked very uneasy, but he could tell by the clenching and unclenching of Ino's hands that she was uncomfortably worried. After a few more quick steps towards them, Ino froze. She whirled around behind her and the relief on her face was obvious.

"Sasuke!"

She dashed forwards as he entered the sunlight and threw her arms around him in a brief reunion. He gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder - he didn't like these open displays of affection much at all. Not even with...

"Where is she? What happened Ino?"

He didn't like the look on his team-mate's face at all; Ino didn't panic easily, but it was closing in on the worry she was currently displaying. She silently pointed towards the centre of the gaping hole in the earth they had created prior to his arrival.

Naruto; her hand was buried deep in the sound ninja's chest, and the bubbling in both their veins was confirmation of what he had seen earlier. Her eyes were red and slitted, irises almost too wide in colour, and her hair - which seemed to have grown back since he had last seen her - was almost static from the use of the abominable chakra.

Even amidst the fangs, claws, and red stains covering her face, hands and dress (that was a surprise - he hadn't believed Naruto even knew where to buy a dress), and the pale quality on her face like she hadn't had a decent nights sleep in months, he'd never been more glad to see her.

"Naruto..."

* * *

Naruto's head snapped towards him instantly, the man staked on her arm sliding free and crumpling to the ground. He watched as the claws and fangs receded, the red in her eyes changed to a different type of red, then back to a familiar blue. She blinked once, twice, and a third time before bolting towards him.

The brief contact was almost suffocating in more ways than one; he had expected a certain degree of emotion when they finally reunited, but he didn't like the shaking he could feel reverberating through him from Naruto. Tightening his own hold around her shoulders - they felt a lot smaller than they usually did and he did not like it one bit - he cast a glance over them towards his other team-mate.

Ino frowned, biting her lip before mouthing the words _'later'_. That couldn't be good at all; moving his gaze from Ino, he looked towards the boy he had seen interacting with Orochimaru earlier. The weirdo was frighteningly similar to him - was Tsunade playing some sort of joke? - but that was not what bothered him.

He was staring at Naruto with far to much concentration; he glared at the boy, putting another arm around Naruto and tightening his grip. He felt rather confused when the kid pulled out a notebook and began to scribble things down; what kind of bad spy was he, writing his notes out in the open like that?

Shaking the thoughts from his head, he relaxed his grip - there were other matters to attend to. Luckily Ino seemed to be having similar thoughts.

"Oi, love-birds, break it up already! We have to find Itachi and get out of here before the snake-pedo turns up; I don't think he's going to be happy considering all the problems we've caused him today!" Ino voiced loudly, making Naruto jump out of his hold from the surprise.

"Itachi's here too?" Sasuke asked; Itachi was in the ANBU wasn't he?  
"long story"

Ino brushed off the question with a glance towards Naruto. Sasuke supposed the answers to this would come later on as well. The topic was dropped in favour of heading back into the halls, and he felt Naruto staring at the additional seals on his neck as the raced down the halls, following Ino.

"What the hell are those seals Sasuke? Those weren't there before!" she demanded, keeping her voice as low as she could.

The horror in her voice wasn't simply shock; she had always been able to read seals well, and he would bet his sword that she had expanded on that ability during the past three years. That shock was from a professional level.

"Restraints, tracers, admonishments, controls..."

Her fingers traced the marks on hi neck with the cloth-free tips, her mind coming to the conclusion Ino and Bad-Spy hadn't quite caught up with.  
"I cant leave here with these still intact. If I try, they activate..." he left it handing, certain they could imagine what he meant by restraints.

"Urgh, I'm sick of all these god runes; Ino, this is different, we have to find Itachi _now! _I can't deactivate all those by myself; I could handle the cursed seal, but those additions are a different matter!"

Ino suppressed the urge to strangle her friend; just because she could find Itachi with her mind didn't make her a damn human compass! It was hard to concentrate running like this too. Naruto was right though; they needed to find Itachi quickly.

Leafing through her mind, she finally found a technique that would have better results than her plain old sensing. She topped in the middle of the hallway forming a short display of hand-seals, prompting the others to halt themselves.

"Yamanaka Secret Technique; Art of Temporary Telepathy" she muttered.

As Ino concentrated, Naruto made use of the time to whack Sasuke about the head with her fists. Holding up one arm to protect his cranium he frowned at the unmitigated show of violence.

"What was that for?" he demanded irritably once the hail of fists halted.

He didn't completely lower his arm, the peace may only be temporary, and if her first hit was anything to go by, Naruto's punches had improved vastly in the past three years. Unlike her boobs - yes, he had noticed, and he really did prefer them that way. Too much stuff sticking out scared him, in frank terms.

"What the hell kind of message was that? And where did you get that bastard's weird birdie things?" she demanded.

The hands on her hips and her irritated expression told him he had three seconds to come up with a plausible answer before she started to attack him again.

"You didn't decode it?" he asked.  
"How on earth can I decode it when you don't put in a key? And why was it one of Deidara's messenger things that brought it?" Naruto demanded, seemingly momentarily satisfied by the explanation.

"I did put a key in you idiot, and Deidara..." Sasuke trilled off.

He really didn't get that guy at all; he'd found weird letters in his room for a while before he managed to catch the guy leaving them behind with the messenger birds. He was always curious about Naruto and Itachi - that led to interest in Ino too - when he came by, but he'd never really explained it.

He didn't see to hate Naruto, he was downright protective and gave him that suspicious older-brother look he was probably supposed to mimic in a normal universe, but the fact was he was still part of the Akatsuki, and talked about that Sasori guy he had been paired up with in Orochimaru's place with fondness. He even went so far as to say that the organization was aiming towards the right thing, just a little misguided.

"...I honestly have no idea what that guy is thinking," he grumbled.  
"Fine, but you didn't put a key in that thing! What use is it if I can't-"

Deciding the important talk could be held of for a little while, he silenced her by gently slamming his mouth against her own; she yelped in surprise, and he used the opportunity to invade her mouth with his tongue, grazing hers with calm impatience.

Naruto finally relaxed a little, and gently pulled on his shirt collar, pulling him close enough to wrap one hand of digits into his fluffy rear locks, her other draping over his other shoulder. one of Sasuke's hand made their way from Naruto's waist towards a breast instead, and Naruto let out a hiss of delectation.

He pulled her upward by one thigh as he pushed her against the wall - she responded, by hitching her legs either side of his hips to make the position a little easier.

"Hey, Sai! Quit it with the ogling - seriously, the note-taking is just creepy! Love-birds, stop... love-birding! _So_ not the time!" Ino berated, snapping out of her trance.

Naruto and Sasuke glared at Sai with identical glare equal almost to those of their elder sibling as they disentangled themselves. Sai continued to take notes, ignoring the irritated look Ino was giving him.

* * *

Itachi quietly eased open one of the doors; he saw nothing but abandoned medical equipment, and quickly moved on down the hall in search of his missing team. He really shouldn't have been surprised that Naruto and Ino blasted off so literally, but he had been hoping that they would have at least tried to restrain themselves.

He had even lost track of Sai! Another ANBU! Sure, Sai was from ROOT, but he'd crossed paths with the association before, and they were even more of a bunch of rule-gluers than the regular ANBU; he didn't like Danzou's methods, but you couldn't argue with results. Until now!

He suspected the lack of findings, and the sheer maze of passageways, were adding to his irritability, but he really didn't give the matter much thought; now Ino on the other hand... Ino was giving him a lot of cause for thought. What on earth had that been back at the onsen?

Well, he knew _what _it was, it was the why that had him confused; what happened to his avoid-all-women policy? He couldn't remember the exact reasoning for his early decision to never actually get into something resembling a relationship, but he was certain it was a good one; why else would he have made it if it hadn't been for good reasons?

what one earth was it about Ino that blew all his mental blocks and drew things out of his head that he didn't really want to express verbally; he acknowledged them internally, but they were his thoughts. Purely for the sake of covering all bases he considered physical attraction.

Ino was, this he could freely admit without repercussion purely from what he observed around the village, a good-looking girl; he'd never had to consider what kind of _'type'_ he would prefer given he had avoided the females of the human race for most of his life, but if he was to think of it logically Ino fitted the credentials required.

She hold her own in a fight, she may not be able to withstand Orochimaru, but she could easily give Kabuto a run for his money and had taken out that red-headed puppet from the Akatsuki; if he had to run around looking rescuing people, he was going to be quickly irritated, so that was one box ticked.

She was of a fairly distinguished clan in Konoha, main line, and since the Yamanakas placed ability over gender or age, she was the current heir to her father unless she gave up the position to her twin brother. The Hyuugas may not be too fond of inter-clan relations, but that was the Hyuugas. Links to other clans were valued by the Uchiha clan – purely politically, but still valued all the same. Given he was the current clan head himself, he couldn't go around with any old girl. Another tick.

To say she got along with his siblings was beyond understatement, she was for all intents and purposes a sister to Naruto in everything but name and blood - they even looked similar, though Ino was a little paler overall. Sasuke would never admit it, but he was certain he saw her with equal importance. Frankly she was one of the few people besides himself who could pound sense into them provided she saw the need for it.

Family came first to Itachi, so that was another tick. Another box she ticked was the fact that she understood his own little ticks and quirks; Ino knew when he was best left alone, and when to give him talks he needed but didn't want to hear, and she had the same sense of slightly warped humour.

But still, even if she ticked all the boxes he had spontaneously come up with, this was Ino; Naruto's best friend, Sasuke's team-mate, and the girl who had momentary spasms of idiocy enough to make her invade the brains of possibly paedophilic, insane, renegade, Kage-level ninjas.

He really didn't understand why he had even reacted to that kiss at all, never mind pressed thing further! He knew Ino liked him a little more than the standard friendship, but as for his own views on the matter they were strictly...

strictly what exactly? Thinking back to the bridge, he knew he had been a little more worried than he should have been; he had almost abandoned his fight with Kabuto, but Sai had rescued her before he had the need to. The only people he had such strong reactions with had been Ayame and Deidara during his Genin days, Naruto, Sasuke and...

...and Ino. All this thinking wasn't making things any clearer; it was just making everything more muddled.

_'Itachi!'_

Itachi almost fell over when Ino's voice resounded in hi mind. Looking around he couldn't see her nor sense her chakra, so he concluded it was a communication technique.

_'Ino?'_ he replied, a little tentatively; if she was in his mind, did that mean she knew what he had just been thinking?

_'It worked? Good! listen up all right? We found Sasuke, but there's a whole bunch of seals on top of the cursed seal that Naruto can't deal with by herself; where are you?'  
'On the west side of the base I think; these passageways make it difficult to be certain. What was all that commotion earlier? I was certain I felt the Kyuubi chakra but-'  
_

_'I'll tell you later all right? you're as bad as Sasuke you know that? this isn't the time! Seals, removal, now! We're heading towards you from the south side all right? Okay, good, see you in a few!'_

Itachi didn't think disobeying her would be a very good idea; Ino sounded irritated, and irritated Ino was never pleasant. Silently darting down another corridor he did his best to head in what he guessed to be in a southerly direction. Using Ino's fist-first method might have been more practical, but frankly that was unprofessional even if he wasn't going to loose any stealth by it.

Orochimaru did know they were here after all... No, he had to be the responsible one here; since Yamato was out of action - and Sai had committed mutiny - there was no one else to play responsible team leader. A low grumble in front of him alerted his senses, and he took refuge behind a corner. Peering round the corner something green and sticky with... were those tentacles?

Moving round the corner with a kunai drawn, he turned to look at his enemy.

From the looks of the flesh floating within its depths, it was a carnivorous blob of... mindless green slime.

* * *

Sasuke glanced at Naruto as she ran on ahead, blasting through walls with her Rasengan; he didn't know if Ino could see it – Naruto was a good actor when she wanted to be - but she winced with every step she took, and sweat was building on her forehead. He knew she hadn't used enough of the Kyuubi chakra earlier to have caused this much damage...

"Before we got here, we ran into Orochimaru; we were supposed to be meeting an Akatsuki spy, but it was Kabuto. He cast some funky technique on her and she attacked us. Kabuto forced her into using four tails of chakra"

Sasuke's only visible sing of the horror building inside him was the clench of his teeth; Kabuto again? Once wasn't enough? First him, now Ino and Itachi? To think he had even tried to manipulate her like that again boiled his blood with rage, but he focused on the_ 'four tails' _Ino had mentioned.

If he concentrated, he could remember the fight at the valley of the end enough to remember the physical tail of the Kyuubi chakra that had manifested. If that had just been one tail, he shuddered to think what four had been like.

"Even without Kabuto interfering, she can't control four tails worth of chakra; Itachi dealt with Kabuto, but he managed to keep his control going till he was knocked out. By the time That happened, she... Things got very bad.

She deliberately looked towards him, and he could immediately tell he wasn't going to like what she said next; the anxiousness on her face had nothing to do with the Kyuubi.

"I don't understand it exactly, but her Sharingan is becoming a problem; it keeps giving her nightmares, and that's and understatement - her claws come out, and she attacked Itachi the first night back. It was enough to make her sick... We take a left here!"

Sasuke frowned as they followed Naruto and the new guy down another corridor at Ino's prompting; he didn't like what Ino had just told him. He'd had problems with that for the first few weeks himself, but by focusing on various torture scenarios for Kabuto, he'd gotten past that particular issue.

Naruto's Sharingan had always been stronger than his though - she received it fully manifested, and her memory was far better than his own. It was a complete recipe for disaster given how she tended to bottle things up. He chew his bottom lip in anxiety as Naruto blasted through another dead end.

"I've been giving her some sleeping pills, but they're not going to work forever. I think, no I'm sure now, that she keeps replaying whatever happened at the valley, but she doesn't remember - she's completely suppressing it" Ino continued clambering through one of the doorways Naruto had created.

Sasuke was no Yamanaka, but even he knew that suppressing things was never good, and given what Naruto was suppressing, this was at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from good. He followed Ino through the hole, quickly catching up again.

"Tsunade-sama is considering sealing her Sharingan away if it continues, and when Itachi went into her mind earlier today with the Mangekyo to get the Kyuubi back under her control... Sasuke, I've never seen him look so worried before..."

That caught his attention; Ino could pick out expression on Itachi's face he didn't even know existed, and Itachi was his brother. If Ino was so concerned about what he had been showing, then what Itachi had seen was probably nothing he would like; he didn't even like this conversation...

Anything he may have asked or Ino could have been about to add was completely thrown aside when a long hooded snake slithered around the corner to greet them.

"Back! Quick!" he barked, turning on his heels and dashing down the corridor they had just travelled down.

He felt Naruto taking up place beside him as they dashed down another side corridor; he'd tried dodging Orochimaru before, and he'd had varying degrees of success depending on which part of the base he was in. He didn't often come over to this side - this was closer to the experimentation labs.

He talked to Suigetsu and Juugo in the other bases, but here the test subjects were either dead, or comatose until it suited Orochimaru to wake them up. He didn't exchange pleasantries that often, so he had no need to explore the ins and outs of this section of the base.

His best bet would be to head back toward the centre where the gaping hole leading to the surface would be. Trying to remember the exact direction, he chose a right hand corridor he was sure they had passed through earlier. There was a slithering chuckle in the darkness at the other end, and something flew towards them.

Naruto hissed as the dart hit her neck; her eyes began to droop, and had he not caught hold of her she would have crashed to the floor. He pulled out the dart, noting it had only mange to dispel half it's contents into her bloodstream. He stared back towards the dark end of the corridor as Ino caught up with what-his-face.

"As much as I enjoyed our last encounter, the Kyuubi tends to get in the way; I'm sure you understand my precautions..."

Orochimaru's smile was sickly malicious as he emerged from the black light of the corridor.

* * *

Sai instantly lunged towards the snake summoner with his short sword pulled from it holster on his back; a thick hard-skinned snake shot from the man's sleeves, wrapping themselves tightly around the sword. Ino moved quickly to Naruto, scanning the effects of the dart with her hands.

"It's just a sedative... but if I don't wake her up soon she could go into a coma; he gave her a concentrated dose..." Ino mumbled.

Using her chakra to make a small slice into the skin of Naruto's arm, she pulled a pink vial from her med-pack, and held the small wound open as she poured the substance directly into Naruto's bloodstream before reapplying the green glow to her hands; she had to directly purge the stuff before it could get any deeper into her system than it already was.

Sasuke joined Sai and lunged towards Orochimaru - he sliced through the snake with relative ease, freeing Sai's sword allowing them both to mount a double attack; Sasuke cursed his barred chakra as he dodged a blow from the man. If he could just make a fire ball or the Chidori, they would have had a better chance.

Where was Itachi? Surely he would have noticed all the noise? They were in the western part of the building, so he must be able to hear them unless... Had Orochimaru managed to hold him off? he wouldn't have thought that possible, but he was willing to believe anything at this point.

Ducking to avoid yet another of the quick blows, he swung his sword towards the man's gut as Sai aimed for his head. The man dodged through the gap between the gap with the agility and flexibility of the snakes he loved so much; a sick smirk crossed his deathly pale face as he formed one hand-seal.

The burning in his veins and organs was almost as bad as what he imagined the Kyuubi chakra did to Naruto; with a loud protest his he fell to his knees, glaring at the man as the seething black petals of manipulation spread over his skin. With a short blow, Sai was flung towards the wall; he crashed trough into another of the experimenting labs - seemingly a plant based one - slamming against the wall opposite from entry point and falling to the floor in an unconscious heap.

"Now Sasuke, you know what you're choices are here; I'm certain my comrades would be delighted to get their hands on your little Jinchuriki - I believe Deidara would be positively gleeful, and that Yamanaka would be a wonderful test subject, but I'm not above negotiation..."

He slithered even with his speech patterns - he was a disgusting snake from head to foot; squirming and slithering into all their weak spots and pushing against the seams of control, manipulating emotions and minds to his own desires. He knew that it was no choice for him, eve as he knew how much he wanted to get up and kill him.

He couldn't though, because he might as well be the man's puppet for all the good his chakra could do him now, and the way the man forced him into making the only choice he would have made anyway galled him.

"Ino take her and go; he's not going to hold that bargain up" he hissed, fingers digging into his shoulder.

Orochimaru might claim to be up for negotiations, but it was a two-faced lie; you didn't join Akatsuki just to bunk off the job, that much he did know about the organisation. The only reason he hadn't tried to capture Naruto earlier was because he knew they would be coming after her later on.

"No! you're not going to leave her alone again Sasuke; I don't know what Itachi saw, but it's plain as hell she wont be able to handl-"

"Crazy people can get help, dead ones can't, and that's what she will be if you don't go! Itachi is clearly held up, and however much training you've had, we cant take him on yet! Get her out of here Ino! Now!" he hissed.

Thankfully, Sai seemed to be catching his drift that there would be other chances for escape, and picked up the barely coherent blonde; Naruto was still suffering from the effects of the dart, but thanks to Ino she had managed to blearily open her eyes.

He felt the slithery pale hand of the man on his shoulder, poking the seal and activation one he was all to familiar with as Sai and Ino pulled Naruto between the two of them; he couldn't distinguish the silent glare from the silent plea, and he wasn't sure if that was the encroaching darkness or not.

"Read the damn thing again, Idiot!" he muttered loud enough for her to hear before the forced blackness swallowed him. He didn't feel the flickering transportation technique removing him from the base, from his team-mates, and from Naruto for a second time.

* * *

"Ino what are you doing still up?" Itachi asked, leaning up in his sleeping bag.

Ino was in her own sleeping bag going over some of the data they had stolen from the hideout as they left by a small torchlight. Judging by the disgusted look on her face, it was not one of Orochimaru's tamer human experimentations.

"I want to get a head start on this before I start working on the body we recovered in Sunagakure - I keep getting a nagging feeling about that, there were too many powerful seals protecting that place for it to be anyone ordinary, but I need to research this as well in case there's something on Sasuke's seal" she mumbled in reply.

Itachi watched as she squinted at the messy scrawl on the page, and remove a pencil jammed underneath her hair-tie. She began crossing things out and adding things and linking things before wrinkling her nose at the paper.

"What the hell would you want a blob of carnivorous slime for?" she grumbled, scrunching up the paper and tossing it into the fire.

"Ino you shouldn't push yourself like this; its been a long day, and Kiba or your brother could easily take care of these notes for you when we get back to the village-"  
"No!" she yelled with a short snappish tone.  
"Ino, I know what you're-"

"What would you know Itachi? I couldn't stop Kabuto before, and even though I can break down wall, dive a man to insanity, and heal a collapsed lung in the middle of a fight, I still couldn't stop that creep from getting his claws on Sasuke again! Just let me work on the one thing that might actually be of use!"

Itachi was a little taken aback; Ino hardly ever used a tone like that, or at least not seriously, and he had certainly not experienced it. Or if he had, it had been so long ago that he couldn't even remember it occurring. One of Ino's notable faults was her unobtrusive and almost invisible methods of self-punishment.

He couldn't be certain, but given the fact Ino had experienced similar – albeit less severe - nightmares to Naruto's, her large training schedule over the past three years could be seen as something else. Ino had, frankly, always been the less active member of the team. She was hardly useless, but her techniques weren't really suited for battle. There was the odd few - like that neuron reversing thing - but not many.

She couldn't have a breakdown like Naruto - there was only room for one breakdown. With only two of them left, someone had to work harder to hold up the scaffolding; Ino was much better at hiding things than Naruto simply because she dint have the same kind of skeletons Naruto did. He was probably the only one who had noticed - having spent so much time with her the past few years - that she still felt guilty about not being able to stop Kabuto long enough for help to arrive.

He understood her need for making up 'compensation' but there were limits.

"I know exactly what its like Ino! My brother is in the clutches of a psycho, my sister is driving herself mad with obsession, and I can't do a thing about because I don't know where Sasuke is!" he hissed.

He moved over to her sleeping bag, took hold of the piles of scrolls and papers and few jars, and sealed them away back into storage scrolls. He turned his eyes towards Ino's own, and his frown deepened at the stunned expression on her face.

"...and since Sasuke is the only thing that will keep Naruto's head, screwed on, I don't feel any success with her! I know exactly what you're felling, but you don't see me punishing myself for doing everything I could!" he growled, allowing a little of his frustration into his voice.

He turned back towards his own sleeping bag and instantly felt the guilt flood over him; there had been no need to say that to Ino at all. Just because he didn't think she was handling things well was no reason to let his own frustration out on her. That was completely unfair given what she had seen today; he hadn't seen Sasuke being taken from them again, but Ino had.

A glance back towards her had him stunned yet again; Ino was crying. She didn't seem to notice it herself, and it was noiseless, but there was no mistaking those saltine tracks on her face. He had never seen Ino cry before - suppressed? Many times. Not even when her mother was killed had she shed a single one. Was it because of what he said? Or because... He was the one who had said it?

He'd passed off her feelings as nothing but a crush, not something serious. Even though he had given the incident at the onsen some serious thought, he'd never really thought they were particularly strong ones.

He was vastly re-thinking those assumptions; in some part of his mind he still thought of her as a twelve year old who didn't really understand the depth of what such feeling meant, but he could hardly say that when he had never doubted Naruto and Sasuke three years previously.

More to the point, Ino was not thirteen any more; for a mere crush to extend over such a long periods of time was doubtful unless there was some real emotion behind it - he knew that much from watching Naruto. He let out a small inaudible sigh; he seemed to be doing a lot of thinking about Ino recently, and he didn't know what to make of the revelations he was getting.

Getting up once again, taking his sleeping bag with him, he crossed over to reposition himself beside her, next to the dull embers of the fire pit. She twitched once, but made no other indication to show she recognised his presence. The guilt was like a lead weight; he didn't like knowing he was somewhat responsible or the clear satins on her face at all.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to say that" he apologized sincerely.

He didn't look at her – Ino wouldn't like that right now - but he did wrap and arm around her shoulders. She stiffened for a moment, before relaxing into his comfort completely, leaning into him so her face couldn't quite be seen. He shifted his legs and pulled another arm around her - he could smell the earthy, leafy scent of her hair, and didn't really know why it stood out so much.

"He was so close Itachi; inches away from us when that snake came out of thin air! This isn't fair on any of us!" she mumbled, clenching the black material of his blue Jonin roll-neck.

Itachi couldn't help but agree; his hand clenched her shoulder a little tighter in response to her words, and he didn't let go; even long after Ino had settled into sleep, she was still safely encased in his arms.

* * *

_**Wow, an update? From me? The apocalypse is approaching!**_

_**I just finished my exams, so as celebration I just bought myself three Shakespeare plays for £6.50; is that a bargain or what? In American money, that's about $13; I've got Macbeth (2nd after Rom & Jules personally), A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Hamlet. I read Macbeth in 90 minuets, on a bus; does that tell you how much of a Shakespeare nut I am? Me likey the Shakespeare! Me also likey NasuSasu, but it's so hard to find good doujins and fanfics! Sasuke is always so whiney - I have the same problem with SasuNaru; apparetly being the uke means being even worse than a girl, and that the poor guy needs saving all the time. I firmly believe that both have the ability to top from the bottom (especially sasuke), but...**_

_**This is why I write gender-bender instead of Yaoi; I don't have to worry about either loosing their balls because they don't have any, and girls who dislike make-up are much more believable to me than whiny crybaby ukes (don't get me started on that kid in Papa to Kiss In The Dark!). If anyone can recommend any good fanfics, my ears are wide open.**_

_**Speaking of ears wide open, I've said before that I have a few obsessive disorders with ItaNaru and such, yes? Ok, good (I've probably mentioned this before somewhere, but I'm saying it again anyway).**_

_****__**I'm looking for this one fic I read yonks ago; it was a one-shot and team seven was on a mission somewhere when Itachi paid Naruto a visit. Lemon ensues, but Sasuke overhears the whole thing cause he's room-sharing with Naruto. That's the basic jist; i**__**t was the first one I ever read and I've been hooked since, but I can't find it!**_

_**I've looked through the archives about three times now and damn it, I cant find it! So if anyone can give me a link or directions (an author name would be particularly appreciated), then I may just love you forever. **__**Screw cookies, I'll write whatever twisted one-shot comes into your head, I'll even try a yaoi lemon - which i have sworn off of for fear of previously mentioned reasons.**_

_** I just really want to find that fic! It was awesome! **_**_Hope you liked the chapter - once again, I mean no offence with the American-English hatred; it just really drives me up the wall when people try to correct my use of language when they don't use the same version! Now when I'm trying to use a foreign language, like french, I appreciate any and all con-crit. Just don't tell me to take out the U in favourite!_**

**_Ahem. Once agin, if anyone is offended by that, it was not intentional; honest to god! I'm shutting up now before I dig myself into an even bigger, wider and deeper hole, and people chase me down with pointy poisoned weapons. Once again, hope you liked!_**

**_Nat._**  
**_xxx_**

**_P.S._**

**_I seriously don't mean to offend anyone American with my manic hatred of American English - I dislike your words, but not you! Well, I'm not very fond of George W. Bush, but everyone else I have no problems with! Shit, I'm hole-digging again, aren't I? Shutting up. Shutting Up!_**

P.P.S.

I forgot; the next chapter will contain a lemon for those who want to read it (an ItaIno one), but I will be putting up an edited chapter minus severely citrus material up as well. I will say this now that it is the second full lemon that i've written, so please no flames, just con-crit if you do read it. well my second for Het at any rate - I'm in the midst of my first NaruSasu Yaoi in one of my notebooks. I thank the demon lord that my mother doesn't nose through them, cause while she don;t mind gay stuff, anything explicit is just a no. She couldn't finish her pie after Jack Harkness started making out with a guy on Torchwood once - I laughed, and got extra food, but the point is that she'd have a heart attack if she read even the worst of yaoi lemons.

So yeah, lemon next chapter for the perverted duckies, and a non-lemon one for the baby duckies (and/or not-pervert duckies). 


	7. Act VII: Perfect Picture

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS AND DOGMAS**

* * *

**ACT II: SCENE VII  
****~ PERFECT PICTURE ~**

* * *

Ino emerged from the hospital, and gave a weary stretch as she walked down the steps towards the main street; after returning to Konoha, several things had happened.

One was that she was busy in the hospital going over stolen data and making very little progress on the body they had retrieved from the bunker - she and Kiba were both anxious to go near it given it could easily dissolve with the chemicals they would have to use.

Naruto had literally thrown herself into her training with Asuma, Itachi and Kakashi; Yamato had yet to fully heal, and while Naruto had been rather guilt stricken for a while, his assurances that he had not been keeping his eyes open as he should have eventually relaxed her.

So far she was yet to make a worthwhile cut into the leaf exercise she had been given to bring out her second element - her father's element - but she was making progress with her Sharingan. Itachi was force feeding her brain the techniques and proper usage. Ino didn't know what was going on concerning Sasuke's note, but she imagined Naruto was working on it.

As she walked through the streets, she saw her cousin heading towards the hospital and frowned; Shikamaru had been going up to the hospital a lot lately, but she had no idea what for. She knew Kurenai was pregnant, and Shikamaru had volunteered his help to Asuma, but just for Kurenai? Ino found that rather hard to believe.

She yawned long and loudly; she couldn't wait to get home and get some sleep. Or some food; she was working double shifts at the hospital to fill her usual free-time slots and the extra work she was putting in was draining. She slapped her hand to her forehead when she remembered that she had forgotten to look through the clan scrolls that morning.

She was certain that she had seen a technique that could help her try to repair the damage to Naruto's mind, or at least see the extent of it. It might be able to help remove the block on Itachi's memories too. The Mind-Walk or something sounding equally similar it was called...

Ino felt the crash as her head collided with something that felt human; she looked up and immediately felt like running for the hills screaming. Itachi stood in front of her a frown on his face as his eyes scanned her worn expression. Oh god, she was about to visit shit creek again.

"Ino I thought you were going to take some time off?"

And there it was.

"I was going to; I changed my mind. Naruto's doing her bit, I'm doing mine…" she replied, pushing past him through the crowds.

Itachi watched her move past him and stood with a frown for several moments before snapping on his heels and following her. She had already gained a fair distance on him - Ino was god at power walking, he was realizing lately - but it was not a problem for him to catch up with her.

"Ino you can't keep pushing yourself like this; it's not healthy, which I'd have thought you knew better than I would!"

He placed a hand on her shoulder and attempted to turn her face towards him; she flicked his hand off her shoulder with the hand not busy balancing files and folders, and shot him a strong glare.

"Stop getting on my case about this Itachi! I know full well what I'm doing! What I do is none of your business, you've made that clear!" Ino snapped.  
"It is my business Ino! Your attitude is worrying me as much as Naruto is right now!"

Ino glared at him.

"Why are you so worried about me anyway?" she hissed.  
"Because you are on the same level I hold Naruto and Sasuke Ino! That's why!"  
"That's not an answer and you know it!"

She turned around again and set off once again; once again, Itachi followed her. She made no indications of stopping and he took hold of her upper arm in an act of desperation; not too hard, but enough to make her stop walking away from him.

"Ino, stop ignoring this! You-"  
"I'm not the one ignoring anything Itachi!" Ino yelled, turning around to face him for herself this time.

Ino was not in the best of moods; she hadn't slept for two days, she couldn't remember eating anything other than a _very_ iffy slice of cheese and some stale crackers, Orochimaru's experiment notes were making her ill, the autopsy was going nowhere fast, she'd forgotten to look up that mind technique _again_, and now Itachi! She couldn't handle Itachi too!

"You want me to stop doing my job, then grow a fucking backbone and stop running away from me!" she snarled.

Her loud volume attracted the attention of the passing villagers, and Itachi was left standing in a statuesque stone as she turned on her heel and walked away from him for the final time.

* * *

Naruto closed the door to her apartment and leaned warily against it; she was exhausted from her training with Kakashi. Cutting that leaf was hard enough, but she had to keep her fire element from getting in the way, and that was a pain in the ass.

Sure, she had managed to cut the thing after twelve hours of headache inducing work, but there was the headache, exhaustion, and Itachi didn't seem to know the meaning of the word break! She was tired of him popping up inside her head to keep the Kyuubi back too! He kept giving her the '_worried-big-brother'_ look, and it was annoying! And Asuma really needed motivation to help her with the chakra thing…

She pulled off her kunai pouch, hair ties, sealing pack, sandals, and the rest of her clothing on her way to the shower; she flicked on the water and stepped underneath it almost robotically. All this effort seemed so pointless after that disaster of a rescue attempt; she had been wiped out with a stupid tiny little dart! A bloody dart! How was learning to make a little breeze going to help her when she was taken down by a stupid little-

Naruto crashed her fist into the tiled wall of her shower, watching a few pink stains trial from the indentation she had made there. Turning her hand over, she watched the broken skin spit out some of the plaster dregs as it knit itself back together.

After rinsing the training dirt from her hair, she towelled off and pulled on a pair of shorts and a black shirt stolen from Sasuke's wardrobe (there was _some_ sentimentality to the action, but for the most part, it was just a comfy shirt). After putting away her work clothes and equipment for the day, she re-tied her hair and flopped down on her bed.

After staring into the fabric of her pillow her gaze turned to her bedside cabinet; her copy of the team photo happily glared back at her.

That had been one of the better moments of the team that she let herself remember from time to time; it was team seven captured in one almost invisible instant. Now the photo was the only indication it had ever occurred at all, like the photo of her ninth birthday - for one thing Sasuke's father was in that one - and the purple pot of perennial, dye-streaked white flowers beside it beside it.

Naruto glanced back to the photograph, and then flopped her head back down, pulling the pillow up to her face to muffle her howl of frustration as the day flooded back to her.

* * *

_"Come on Sasuke! Smile for once! How often are we going to get a photo taken for free like this? You know they don't come cheap!" Ino moaned, pulling on the corners of Sasuke's cheeks in persistence._

_"Ino has a point Sasuke; you should make the most of this" Kakashi added, his attention rapt on an orange book just out of Naruto's reach._

_Sasuke remained adamant with his blank expression; so what if it was their team photo? He didn't smile like this all the time, so why should he force it for a stupid old photo? The photographer looked a little irritated, but he could suck it up. He wasn't going to smile when there was no need to._

_"Sasuke, the quicker you get it over with, the quicker we can go!" Naruto grumbled._

_She had a point; they had agreed to go to Ichiraku's and then the cinema to laugh at paid civilians pretending to be ninjas. At this rate they would never make it in time if they wanted to get some last minuet practice in for the Chunin exams too._

_"Fine, but I am not doing this again!" he grumbled irritably._

_The relief-stricken photographer quickly ushered them into a group; Sasuke, Naruto, and Ino in front of their still-porn-reading teacher. It was the standard format for team photo's and Ino was not satisfied with it; their team was experimental in set-up, and its members were hardly standard, so in her mind it stood to reason they should have a team photo that stood out from the crowd._

_She quickly scampered onto Kakashi's back - who quickly snapped his orange book closed and took hold of her legs to keep her in the air - and dragged Naruto and Sasuke in front of both of them by their ears._

_"Put some effort into this!" she persisted with an irritable warning. _

_Sasuke glared at her, but placed his arm around Naruto's waist all the same; Naruto snickered at the secret promise of pain and suffering he was giving the blonde on Kakashi's back. The photographer made another irritated statement of having other teams to photograph, and Ino put a grin on her face, holding her two hands either side of her team-mates' heads making two victory signs._

_Kakashi made a simple hidden smile, his lone eye closing as the photographer ducked his head beneath the fabric at the back of his camera. His fist was holding the shutter button up in the air._

_"Three... Two..."_

_Naruto quickly turned towards Sasuke, reaching up a little and putting her arms around his neck, giving his grinning face a peck on the cheek as the photographer snapped the shutters of the camera closed with the press of a button._

_The minute blush dusting Sasuke's pale, surprised cheeks was permanently captured on the photographic film.  
_

* * *

Naruto rolled over to stare at the ceiling as the memory passed; what was wrong with her, moping like this? She should be training or trying to decode that letter...  
Though that was one of the reasons she was moping in the first place, wasn't it?

She flopped an arm over to her cabinet once again and pulled the note closer to her nose upon successful grasp of it; the annoying thing was that she could have decoded this if Sasuke had made a recognisable key for the thing. Why hadn't he anyway? Most people couldn't even read the sealing alphabets! She knew he was just being cautious but...

She stared at the symbols with a loathe-filled glare; sitting up she moved from her bed to claim some paper and a pencil before returning. Giving the symbols another glare as she settled down, she translated it without trying to figure out the keyword; maybe she could get an idea for the keyword that way.

After several minuets of scribbling what emerged from her effort was something that could only be described as... Gobbledegook. It was a disgusting, incomprehensible mess of random words with no sense of rhyme or reason or rhythm or...

It was just a mess! Naruto glared at the message itself, and then back at her translation as she tried to find some sort of comprehension in it.

_Unless the surroundings unknown. Meters from Bi-Polar Orochi_m_aru; is the attempts source seal come into affect; _i_f from Otogakure escape be in northern unconsciousness. Original seal would of the cursed Water Country. Additi_o_ns to but thought to Erasing the added off with seal. Base guards, seals will dissolve. Cursed seal network that cured, Juugo die seem particularly removed work; strong. The cursed the keeps the generate also seals the northern has few bases or 150 seals but none of them intact the will the away are he is._

_Sas_u_ke._

No matter how many times she tried to rearrange the runes using the total her name provided, she didn't get any sort of readable message; when the total her name, when the letter values were added up, generated and the total number of words in the message itself was the same, then results were out of the question.

"What the hell is this supposed to mean? Damn it Sasuke, you're such a stupid ass of an idiot! What the hell kind of key word-"  
_"__Read the damn thing again, idiot!"_

The memory of his last words flashed obnoxiously in her mind; he couldn't have used it. He couldn't have! There was no way he would have used it! She would never have thought of it, he knew that right? She cast a glance to the angular runes that remain stubbornly untranslated.

Biting her lip, she added up the value of the characters in the impossible word - because she was sure it would not work - and counted to the fifty-ninth rune on the letter. She couldn't be certain of the meaning, but it was something to do with health. Glancing towards her mess of a translation, she looked for the relevant word; there on the fourth line, six words in - _'cured'_. It made no sense by itself but if she rearranged the runes around it according to their numerical line placement...

Grasping her pencil once again, she put her head to work, and after perhaps half an hour of hair tearing and screams of frustration, she finally had a message of moderate legibility. She glanced over the message once before throwing her pencil towards the wall.

"You're the idiot; who'd get a clue like that from one word?" she muttered.

Pulling herself out of bed, she pulled on and orange skirt - it was two layers of a dark orange beneath and a brighter shade of the same colour that met with a triangular gap just beneath the waist-button, much like Ino's casual wear - and her sandals as she headed for her door.

It was late, but Tsunade had ordered any progress be reported immediately, and Naruto was never going to argue with haste over something like this. Besides, if Sasuke's message was right, then they may be able to get him home in time after all.

* * *

Ino dashed out of the morgue quick as lightning, still dressed in her hospital overalls; she had received Tsunade's summons concerning the note in the middle of the autopsy with Kiba, though in spite of the mess it had made, it wasn't revealing much.

Even if the body had yet to properly decompose, it was still far too old to withstand the use of the usual chemicals and techniques they used; everything including tests on the bone marrow and the crispy dried blood had to be done by hand, and that was horribly time consuming.

And tiring; a hand-conducted autopsy took a lot of concentration she wasn't sure she even had at the moment - even breathing seemed to be a little harder than it normally was. She'd managed to get a couple of hours sleep at home, but digging through the family faults had given her a brainwave on the autopsy, and she had gone back up to join Kiba; the brainwave hadn't really worked out, but she would try anything for some sort of result at this point.

Walking through the hospital with the autopsy on her mind, she almost didn't spot Shikamaru exiting the records room, _again_. Shikamaru had been nosing around the hospital for a few days now, and something about it set her on edge, but she'd kept quiet. He _was_ her cousin, and he deserved the benefit of the doubt after all.

But trying to sneak into the records room under her nose was going _too_ far; she had done the same thing herself with Naruto and Sasuke, but she was a respected member of the medical teams now! She had to hold up the rules even to her own relatives.

"Shikamaru, what are you doing in here without access? I could have you put on probation for breaking in here! Some of the information in here is classified to regular troops!" she berated, giving him a whack to the back of the head with her clipboard.

"Sorry Ino, but dad wants the clan records for tonight; he has the clan registry to fill out this week, and he needs the records fast" he apologized.

Ino didn't need to feel the irregular fluctuations in his mind to know he was lying, but she pretended she had never felt it. She didn't want to make accusations when she didn't have a base for something she didn't even know. She'd have to keep an eye open, but that was the best she could do for now. Shikamaru wouldn't lie unless he had a good reason, and she trusted him not to do anything stupid.

"Fine, but tell Shikaku that if he wants the files, he has to fill out an access grant form like everyone else! The books are bad enough without files going AWOL too! I'm letting you go now, but you will be suspended if I catch you here again!" she warned, before turning on her heels and heading for the stairs.

"Where are you going?" he asked.  
"Naruto finally cracked that note from Sasuke; you can come along and help us figure out the next move if you want, I'm going to Tsunade-sama's office now" Ino replied, mounting the stairs.

Shikamaru quickly followed her; there was no pint in looking for missing files after all. After overhearing that conversation Itachi had conducted with Ino's dad, Jiraiya, and the Hokage, he had been digging for any information he could.

He hadn't caught all of it, but he'd heard enough to know that Naruto's links to the Uchiha clan were closer than he had first thought. He'd heard the word Sharingan several times in relation to some nasty sounding nightmares and Sasuke, and that yanked on his curiosity.

He'd searched the records room, and asked his parents about Naruto, but they knew nothing - just like Inochi had told Itachi. The files for the Uchiha clan were gone from the records room too. That was even more incriminating to him that, for whatever reason, Naruto's biology was being kept tightly wrapped up.

That being his course of thought, he quickly followed Ino - who had been looking a little dog-eared lately - down the stairs and out of the hospital. The best thing he could do was try and get as much information as he could on the matter, and he was certain that would start with not only Naruto, but Sasuke.

* * *

"You're sure this is what it says?" Sakura asked Naruto.

The blonde nodded. Itachi watched as they poured over the different versions - translated and untranslated - with almost frantic concentration. Tsunade had been insistent that the not be checked for credibility by both girls once again, but she was already standing at the window with her arms crossed; a sign that she was deep in thought.

Ino stood suspiciously slumped against her desk, adding her own opinions to Tsunade's thought when they were voiced.

"Read it out again" Tsunade instructed.  
Naruto was quick to oblige.

"Additi_o_ns to the cursed seal come _i_nto affect away from Otogakure bases or 150 meters from Orochi_m_aru; unless the seals are removed, escape attempts generate unconsciousness. Erasing the original seal would also work; surroundings unknown, but thought to be in northern Water Countr_y_. Bi-Polar Juugo is the source of the cursed seal; _i_f he is cured, the network that keeps the seals intact will dissolve. The added seal_s _will die off with the cur_s_ed seal. The northern base has few guards, but none of them seem particularl_y_ strong. March 1st.  
Sas_u_ke."

Tsunade bit her lip deep in thought for several more moments.

"Going for Sasuke directly is going to be a last resort; the last mission proved that using that method is no use; Sasuke knew that and sent us this. Though I must admit, if we hadn't received that tip from the Akatsuki Ino killed then I doubt we would be reading this even now..."

"We've figured that out already you old bat; get to the point!" Naruto demanded impatiently.

Tsunade scowled in irritation, but did as Naruto asked.

"From what this message says, and from what we know from Sasuke directly, Orochimaru keeps him under strict limitations; the fact this message is even with us is a miracle, and we have no idea how accurate this information is. I think the best way to approach this is to send teams out to search the other territories as well as to Water Country…"

"Gaara will probably be able to help us out in wind country; he already told us he's willing to help us if he can! He said that he would be able to join up some of his..."

Ino wavered, dropping her sentence unfinished. She placed a hand to her head to her forehead, the other clutching the edge of Tsunade's desk in support. Her breathing looked very irregular now that he was paying proper attention, strained.

"Ino?" Tsunade asked in a dangerous tone - her eyes narrowing at Ino's slumped form.  
"I'm fine! I just feel a bit... light... headed..." Ino's breath was strained, like she was struggling for it.

After a few strained gasps Ino crumpled to the floor faster than Itachi could move over the floor of the office to catch her. Tsunade and Naruto were already there when he pushed passed Shikamaru; Tsunade pulled Ino's inert head onto Naruto's lap and immediately checked her breathing.

"That idiot..." she grumbled.

She pulled at the fastening on Ino's shirt, trying to free up her breathing. Her hands glowed green and Itachi watched as the green chakra was sucked up by the pores of Ino's skin, just below her neck. After a few moments Ino's strained breathing returned to normal, even if it wasn't the strongest.

"What happened to her?" Naruto asked.

"She's been pushing herself too much; her chakra has been compensating for her lack of energy and she's just run out - any more and she would have been in serious trouble…" Tsunade replied, pushing more of her chakra into her student.

"I told her she was being reckless!" Itachi growled.  
"Yeah well, you aren't in her good books right now; she's not going to listen to someone she's mad at!" Naruto told him pointedly.  
"What? How do you know about that?"

Itachi stared at her in surprise; he really shouldn't have been surprised that Ino had told Naruto what had happened - they were best friends long before they were team-mates - but he wouldn't have expected Naruto to mention it. She normally let Ino deal with things by herself unless...

"I've known Ino for _years_; I know when something to do with _you_ sets her off! Don't think I can't read you either Itachi! I've known you just as long, technically longer! Frankly I think you need to open your eyes! Ino can get fed up of things too you know, even if she doesn't _act_ like that, and you're heading in that direction right now!" Naruto snapped.

Tsunade was more than happy to let the family feud continue - it was _very_ entertaining to watch Itachi loose his famed composure over her student and his sister - but that look Shikamaru was giving them was not one she was happy with.

"All right, Itachi, take Ino back to your house for now; Inochi and Inoro are both booked out at the hospital and the interrogation unit - keep giving her chakra infusions every hour or so, even when she wakes up. I'll come by later if I can, but I'll most likely pop by tomorrow." Tsunade instructed, giving Ino a last large infusion of chakra.

Itachi nodded, carefully picking Ino up from the floor.

"Keep her chest free from too much obstruction - the idiot needs all the air she can get right now!" Tsunade added, handing Itachi the short purple top Ino wore off-duty as she sent a worried glare towards her student.

Silence enveloped the room at the sight of his furiously worried frown. He quietly closed the door behind him as he carried Ino out of the room, and Tsunade instantly turned back to the matter she had just been addressing.

"That _idiot!_ If she wasn't already... Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Judging by this date, it's either the only chance we have, or as much time that Sasuke feels remains before Orochimaru takes over his body." she finished, now free from interruption.

"Will we be leaving soon?" Naruto asked.  
"Team Seven will be sent to Water Country, but given the disaster of the last mission, I'll be sending another team along with you for back up" Tsunade sighed, slumping back in her chair.

Itachi would be sent with Kakashi this time around - she'd send Yamato, but he wasn't nearly healed enough to take part in even a C-Rank right now. Itachi had proved his Mangekyo could handle the Kyuubi.

"Team Eight would be best; some trackers and a Byakugan will be beneficial if this is a search mission; I think Gai's team is in earth country right now, so we can send them back up to search there…" Shikamaru added, making his own contribution.

Tsunade nodded, absently looking towards the separate looks being sent to Naruto by Shikamaru and Sakura; Shikamaru definitely knew something, but what? Did he just know about Naruto's Sharingan, or did he know about her relation to Itachi and Sasuke too?

Sakura though, kept glancing between the two letters in her hand and the girl who had translated the original for her. There was something else there too, but not what Shikamaru was hiding; Sakura seemed to have noticed something a little more personal, not suspicious.

"Fine; Team Ten will go with some of the Chunin to Wind Country and relay the message to Gaara; Shikamaru, I'll be placing you as team leader for this - Asuma has his hands full with Kurenai right now." the leader replied.

"How long before we set off?" Naruto asked.  
"we'll have to wait for Team Eight to return from their mission, so I think you have at least a week to keep training and prepare." Tsunade replied.

Naruto nodded silently; realising the discussion was over for now, she turned and headed for the door. Sakura perked up and watched her leave for a few moments before quickly following her out the door. Shikamaru watched them leave before heading to follow her.

"I'd be careful Shikamaru; if you don't watch what you say to her you'll set of a field of exploding tags..." Tsunade warned, pausing his hand momentarily before it grasped the door handle and followed the two girls.

* * *

At the same time, Juugo was frantically gouging into the wall of his cell; he wasn't worried about the large carving being discovered – not even Orochimaru entered his cell any more. His food was slid inside through a sliding panel at the bottom of the cell door, and rather quickly at that.

Sasuke's plan was all well and good, but if Naruto couldn't talk to him, then the whole thing would grind to a complete halt. He looked at the thin circular gouge in his cell wall and nodded in satisfaction; when he was on the verge of switching personalities, he got a huge boost of strength that was proving advantageous in hurrying his work along.

Feeling the surge of power creeping into his mind once again, he started hacking with the smaller rock into the rock again, this time in an action that would create a pupil-like dot in the centre of the circle he had just drawn. If this wasn't a big enough hint, then he didn't know what was.

"Naruto, wait! I need to tell you something!" Sakura called out to the blonde ahead of her.

Naruto stopped walking down the hallway and turned around, surprise on her face. She and Sakura didn't usually talk to her that much - that was more of Ino's forte. They were friends, and she trusted Sakura enough to let her know about Deidara and the Kyuubi, but they didn't really see that much of each other. This was an odd occurrence at the very least.

"What?" Naruto asked as Sakura finally caught up with her.

Sakura paused for a few moments, hunched over to regain some breath, before looking up at Naruto.

"It's about the message from Sasuke..."

That immediately had her attention; anything Sakura would have to say on that, she'd believe beyond doubt. Sakura was much more skilled with decoding things than she was - her only stumbling block had been the rune language Sasuke had used - which she seemed to have memorized in a week. She may not be able to form seals, but she could certainly read them now.

"What about it? Is there something wrong with it?"

Naruto couldn't help but panic a little; it would be just like Tsunade to tell her things were going smoothly (sort of) when there were problems - she liked the woman, but she could be too protective sometimes - and it was just like Sakura to tell her those problems anyway.

"No! It's just something I noticed when I was looking over the rune version…"

Sakura reassured her quickly, pulling out her copy of the untranslated letter - it was covered in pencil scribbling even more so than her own copy was, and some specific runes were circled and linked together.

"Some of there characters were a bit more heavily indented into the paper; I didn't think much of it but, I decided to have some fun with them anyway. I rearranged them and..."

Sakura held out another piece of paper, smaller than the first by a large proportion. Naruto pulled the paper from her fingers. three tiny words. Naruto stared at them for a few moments before throwing her arms around Sakura's neck and squeezing the living daylights out of her.

"Thank you Sakura" she mumbled into the girls ear before taking of down the hallways once again.

Sakura watched her leave, and waited until her footsteps had disappeared down the hallways before turning to glare into the passage behind her.

"You can come on out now."

Shikamaru emerged from one of the alcoves of the hallway, face set in thick frown. He stared down the hallway Naruto had just left down for a few moments, before turning to glare at Sakura.

"Why did you show her that? The chances of finding him before Orochimaru takes him over are slim to none now; it'd be better to let her give up instead of finding out the hard way!" he asked, clearly irritated.

Sakura matched his glower.

"She needed to see it, and I don't see where you get off trying to decide things like that for her!" she snapped.  
"I'm not trying to decide things; I'm just stating the best options. She's a mess because of him, it'd be better if she just forgot about him!"

Sakura stared at him in amazement; she knew Shikamaru had something of a _thing_ for Naruto, the only person who _didn't_ was probably Naruto herself, and while Sakura knew he was worried about her, she wouldn't have expected this from him.

"It's hardly Sasuke's fault they're in this mess Shikamaru! You're trying to pawn this off on him because you don't like him? Because you're _jealous?_ That's pretty low!" she snapped loudly.

Shikamaru had the decency to look slightly abashed, and Sakura softened up a little. She hadn't meant to shout, but she still didn't like hearing people badmouth Sasuke. Crush she no longer had, but Sasuke was still their comrade even if he wasn't there at the moment.

"I know she's a mess Shikamaru - Ino and Itachi and even Tsunade-sama are all tearing their hair out over it - but the fact is she _doesn't care_ if she goes nuts or not; I thought showing her that might help keep her under the light of sanity a little while longer" she sighed.

Shikamaru remained silent, and Sakura let out another sigh of frustration as he walked past her, seemingly bent on ignoring whatever she had to say.

"Think of it this way..." she called out.

She heard his footsteps halt on the floorboards and picked up her sentence once more.

"If _you_ were searching for _her_, and this was the only way you had to know how she felt after one failure to get her back, wouldn't you want to see it?"

His silence answered her question, and she turned around to face his halted back to give him one final message.

"If you want to get her to give up on Sasuke, then go ahead, but at least let her make that decision on her own and in her own time instead of doing something _stupid!_" she grumbled.

Shikamaru continued down the hallway, and Sakura headed back towards the cipher department. She had said when had been needed, and she could only hope Shikamaru actually listened to her advice.

* * *

Itachi was seated in one of his chairs, head held up with one hand as he kept a careful watch over the blonde girl who lay recovering on his sofa.

He had warned Ino that she was pushing herself too far, and now he had the proof; she had been almost living off of the reserves that were normally used for techniques, but she had been using it for those too. It had been too much for her to handle and she had almost used the reserves that were retained for staying alive.

Why on earth hadn't she listened to him? Was she doing this to prove a point? She had proved her stubborn nature was as strong as ever, and she had certainly gained his attention in the process. Maybe he shouldn't have brushed what had happened at the Onsen aside so casually.

Naruto was right to say Ino was mad at him; he was the one who was avoiding the matter, and Ino wasn't the type to take that lightly. But still, just because she was mad at him was no reason to ignore perfectly sound advice!

A groan from the blond told him Ino was waking up; a hand went to rub the sleep from her eyes as she sat up. She looked down at her bandages, then around the room. Her vision landed on him and she paled at the expression on his face.

"I told you were pushing yourself too much" he informed her quietly.  
"And I told you that it was none of your business" Ino grumbled in reply.

Itachi rubbed his temples in frustration; he didn't know how to communicate this to her; how did he explain that sick terror he'd felt when she had collapsed in Tsunade's office? His barley understood it himself! He knew Ino was no mere child or simply his sister's friend, team-mate, any more, but he didn't understand this sudden change of emotions.

"What do you want me to say? Why isn't the fact I was worried sick enough for you to listen to me?" he asked irritably.

Ino glared at him from the sofa; this wasn't fair, this wasn't something she wanted to be dealing with! The more she saw Itachi, the more distant on this whole mess he would get. That was the last thing she needed! Though at the same time, if she avoided him, this would be avoided forever.

"Because you aren't! You don't care!" she spat.  
"I think the fact that I'm arguing with you about this is proof enough that I do!" he frowned.

Ino stood up, moving to the other side of the room so she wouldn't have to look him in the eye. She could tell from the tone of his voice that he was mad, especially with that last statement. He did care; she knew he did, but all this dodging and avoiding he was sending her way...

What else was she supposed to think?

"Then why do you keep avoiding me? Why do you keep pushing me away?" she asked, turning to face him.

"That has nothing to do with this Ino!"  
"Bull shit!" she yelled, throwing her shirt - folded on the end of the sofa - at him, before turning down the hallway towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Itachi demanded, getting up to follow her.  
"home." she snapped in reply to his question.  
"You aren't supposed to be up yet Ino! Do you realise that you could have killed yourself-"

"Stop it! I don't want you worrying about me when you can't even tell me why!" she roared, searching through the piles of shoes for her sandals.

Where the hell were they? Itachi stood behind her, watching her. God, couldn't he just drop it? She didn't want to fight him over this! She didn't want to fight him period! That would do far more harm than good!

"I worry because you're important to me Ino; I may not have specifics, but I can promise you that at-"

"No Itachi! I don't know what I'm supposed to be around you any more! I don't know what you want from me! You push me away, but you freak out when I get a little dizzy! I don't want any more of this _cryptic crap_!"

Itachi froze; it was like a light had been switched on for him. All this could have been avoided if he hadn't been dodging her when she broached what had happened in the onsen, couldn't it? Even just a little bit of clarification would have been welcomed, and all of this could have been avoided!

"I'm sorry"

He was very sincere with the words; he really hadn't meant to get her so confused like this. He didn't like knowing his own mistakes could have something of a cause on her collapse. He didn't like it _at all_. Ino was staring at him, and he could see that apology accepted or not she still didn't understand it. He didn't know what he was supposed to do - he was doing what came naturally when people important to did stupid things, but that just wasn't getting through to her!

"You already know how I feel Itachi; you're no idiot, and I'm not the most subtle person in the world..." Ino sighed, voice laced with frustration even though she understood him.

"...but I'm not going to waste my life chasing you! It's driving Naruto _insane_, but at least she knows that Sasuke feels the same way!"

She had such a fierce look in her eyes. He'd seen it many times before, but not like this; this time he was on the receiving end, and it was in an alien situation for both of them. He knew what this was about, and he had an idea of just how important Ino had come to be in his life but... He still didn't understand it. He didn't know what he was supposed to do - he was doing what came naturally when people important did stupid things, but that just wasn't getting through to her!

Her words were like a knife wound, but they were still true; he was dragging her around like a puppy because he didn't know where his own emotions were going. Naruto had warned him as much earlier hadn't she? Why hadn't he listened and talked this through with Ino earlier? He didn't like the implications he was getting from this conversation.

"I'm _not_ going to put myself through that when I don't even know what you want!"

She was yelling now, waving her fists and yelling as high as her vocal chords would let her. He'd always found that side of her amusing as a child - she seemed to come alive, completely out of her shell that kept out the members of her clan from private thoughts, from things she didn't want to bother Naruto with.

He watched as she picked up her purple shirt, pulling on the fabric frantically. She eventually gave up with a frustrated howl and headed for the door without care that it was only her bandages covering her. He stared at her back as she headed fro the door. Even her hair seemed angry, absurd as it seemed. A strange feeling flooded him as he watched.

He didn't like watching her walk away from him at all, and he felt that, if he didn't stop her now, do something _now_, he wouldn't even need to worry about such a thing in the future. That was something he wanted even less. He reached out an arm to stop her - something he seemed to be doing a lot lately.

"Ino, wait-"  
"Why? Tell me why I should!" she roared at him as she was either turned or whirled to face him - he couldn't be sure of which.

He couldn't say it. Because he wasn't sure how, or because he didn't know what he wanted to say, he wasn't sure of. What he did know, was that he had to do something to keep her from walking out the door.

He pulled her towards him with one arm by the waist and crashed his mouth against hers; he felt the punches on his shoulder - she even seemed to be using a tiny amount of chakra, but as he pressed deeper onto her lips, grazing them with his tongue, they dimmed, gradually pulling him closer as she began to return the kiss, even beginning to moan in the back of her throat.

Her weight was eventually a little uncomfortable, and they both dropped to the floor; Itachi pushed his tongue past her lips and shuddered as it brushed hers. Ino pulled him down by the long hairs at the nape of his neck, doing whatever popped into her mind to keep him from pulling away again.

He knew he should pull away; this was hardly the time for romance, but he could not. Not now that he made a move of his own; if he backed out now, Ino would never give him a second chance.

His hands trailed her sides with hidden reservation, gently brushing her bare skin before rising to her bandage encased breasts. His hands paused, uncertain of whether continuing really was such a good idea, and then Ino's hand on the back of his head pulled him further down, and there was little choice in the matter.

* * *

Sasuke landed on the stone floor of the cell with a thud; his vision was only just returning to him after the journey to... He didn't know where this place was, but he had seen the cells before. He knew it was another of Orochimaru's bases.

His seal was burning on his shoulder, and the thick haze in his mind told him that not only had he been knocked out for a long time, but there were some new restraints on his seal. He couldn't see them without a mirror, but the tightness in his throat was a hint.

One of the guards - the one who had thrown him in the cell - sneered at him before slamming the doors and locking them with a complex array of locks and seals. Sasuke had to wonder why Orochimaru hadn't done this in the first place - surely the man wasn't naïve enough to thing he would warm to the idea of the man completely suppressing his mind?

The guard walked away down the halls and Sasuke picked himself up off the floor; looking around he could tell this cell was probably a lot better than the others. The bed had covers for one thing, and there was a tiny rectangle of light in one corner of the ceiling - barred, but still there.

He was probably expected to be grateful - most of these cells had twenty residents with only the clothes on their backs for warmth. Juugo's room had probably looked like this at one point, before he had destroyed it.

Seating himself down on the bed, he let his thoughts track back to his meeting with Naruto; he'd given her the hint she needed, and he was certain she would pick up on it eventually, even if not right away.

He hoped he had guessed Orochimaru's hideout-hopping schedule correctly – if not then he had no idea as to how he would get out of her if he did manage to escape. Everything he had planned was based on the assumption he would end up where he wanted to be. Not the best course of action, but it was the only one he had at the moment.

"You're Sasuke right? You_ have_ to be; your hair looks like a duck's ass!"

Sasuke snapped his head towards the bars; that was Naruto's nickname for him, and unless someone he knew from Konoha was nearby...

"How do you know that?" he asked.

He felt the strain on his voice as he crossed the floor to peer through the pars - he didn't touch them in case of being knocked out again, but he was close enough to see through the bars to the other row of cells.

Caged up in a cell directly opposite his own was a girl with pastel green hair and red eyes in a dirty white skirt and top. She had matching arm coverings, a waterfall headband adorning one, and the infectious grin she wore reminded him of Naruto.

"It _is_ you! She told me you glared like that!"

She danced up and down, clapping her hands in glee; Sasuke felt even more confused than before. Naruto knew this girl? Or maybe Ino?

"How do you know who I am, and more to the point, who are you?" he asked irritably.

The girl was probably a couple of years older than him, if her was to judge by her height, but she was like a horrible unstoppable mass of energy. At least Naruto knew when to calm down her antics... most of the time.

"Oh! Sorry! My name's Fuu; I'm a Jinchuriki - the seven tailed beetle - and I know you because Naruto told me about you! I met her last year!"

Sasuke's eyes widened; this girl was a Jinchuriki? But wouldn't she have been hauled off to have her demon extracted by now? She knew Naruto? They probably got along like a house and fire…

"What are you still doing here then? Not that I want you to be dragged for extraction but..."

He left it hanging, and the girl seemed to pick up on what he was asking.

"I was caught by Orochimaru - just like you. He wanted to see how the curse seal would affect a Jinchuriki. Bug-eyes got rid of it, but the slimy git isn't done with me yet…" she explained.

Sasuke nodded, but was still slightly confused - why would Orochimaru find her valuable enough to delay the demon sealing? Once again, she picked up on his confusion, and continued to explain.

"I can regenerate because of my demon, so I'm a perfect test subject for him. As long as the demons are sealed in a vaguely chronological order, I'm not needed until the six lower demons are sealed."

That made much more sense. Sasuke flopped back down onto his bed; he had quite a few questions for his new cell-mate, and he might as well be slightly comfortable was he asked them.

He had a lot of questions after all.

* * *

It was late in the night and beginning to rain at the training grounds when Shikamaru found her. Naruto was grateful to Sakura for giving her the second, smaller message from sacker, she really was, but at the same time it felt awful. She felt guilty, felt weak for not being able to succeed the first time round - for being taken down by a stupid dart.

She threw herself into her training to take her mind off it, but those three little words resounded in her head with horrible clarity. They wouldn't leave her mind at all, and all she could concentrate on was the mixed up rush of emotions they had dragged up form her.

_'I miss you'_

With a frustrated scream she hurled her Rasengan into to the trunk of the tree she had been stealing leaves from earlier that day under the guidance of Asuma and Kakashi. The bark splintered and groaned before shooting from the trunk in all manner of directions.

She flopped back onto the ground staring up into the rainy sky- the expulsion of chakra had been particularly large for a Rasengan, and after some much training earlier it was tiring; maybe she shouldn't blast anything any more, given what had happened to Ino earlier.

She and Itachi had better be sorting things out; she couldn't take any more of their stupid tango. Well, Itachi had better sort himself out; he was the one with the problems after all. She didn't understand why he was blocking Ino; he already liked her, and Ino was not exactly discreet. Everything was fine for them, they should just get on with it already!

"Naruto"

Naruto sat up and turned her head to see Shikamaru standing behind her. The look on his face worried her; it told her this wasn't exactly a social call. Was this about Ino? Had she taken a bad turn or something?

"What is it? What's with the gloom?" Naruto asked warily.

She didn't know if she wanted to know what was on Shikamaru's mind; she didn't like the look on his face at all.

"What are you doing training so late? Your brother will go nuts after what happened to Ino wont he?"

Naruto focused her attention directly towards Shikamaru, attention rapt. Did he just say...? He couldn't know could he? She knew Shikamaru was smart, but they had been vigilant in hiding any trails! They had removed the Uchiha and Namikaze files from the records room!

"What are you talking about; I'm an only child Shikamaru!" she grinned, completely hiding her inner turmoil.  
"The Uchiha files are missing from the records room, and there are no Uzumaki or Namikaze files either..." Shikamaru stated pointedly.

He knew that much? He had been investigating this? Why? What possible reason could he have to dig around her past like that? No, what _right_ did he have to do that?

"And? There are plenty of explanations for that" Naruto retorted, her grin just as wide.  
"Like?" Shikamaru asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow.  
"Like the Kyuubi?" Naruto suggested - it was one of the reasons in a roundabout way after all.

Shikamaru watched her for a moment and let out a sigh; he sat down next to her on the grass. Naruto watched the trepidation playing across his face as he formed his next thought; maybe she could play this to make it seem like she didn't know? She'd have to completely go off tangent but...

"I heard Itachi talking to Tsunade about some sort of nightmare you had; Jiraiya said they weren't infrequent..."

Uh-oh. This was really bad; she couldn't make something up for that. Shikamaru would want answers for the dreams at least, and while she could pass of Itachi's worrying as just looking out for her because of Sasuke's role in her life...

"...Jiraiya said Fugaku sealed your _Sharingan_ a few months after you were born because of the same thing."

Shikamaru was a _nosey git _who didn't know what was good for him! He shouldn't listen to private conversations with the Hokage! Besides being grounds for having his licence revoked, it was just _rude!_ She could pretend she didn't know anything about this but she didn't think Shikamaru would buy it; he could always tell when she was lying for some reason...

"I know how bloodlines work Naruto - the Nara mind isn't _quite_ the same as the Uchiha Sharingan, or Yamanaka Telepathy but the principle is the same; Sasuke is your brother! That's why Fugaku looked after you as a kid, he's probably-"

"Fugaku is _not_ my father! Don't you _dare_ compare him to that man! They're _nothing_ alike!" Naruto snapped, a certain ammount of disgust with the notion he was suggesting in her voice.

Her hand slapped to her mouth when she realised her mistake, and she turned away from his widening eyes. There was no way she could get away from this now! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn her blabber mouth! This was Ino's fault! Her blabbering was contagious!

"You already _know_ don't you? How long have you known?" he demanded, a little anger rising in his voice.

What the _heck?_ So she hadn't told anyone, but there was no reason for him to be _mad_ at her! Freaked out, disgusted, shocked, repulsed, a little wary maybe, but mad? No! He had no reason to be angry with her! Shikamaru was smart enough to know why this wasn't public knowledge.

"Since we got back from our first C-Rank; my Sharingan activated, and we started doing what you've been doing. I found out after the Chunin exams…" she mumbled reluctantly.

She didn't like the way this was going; why was Shikamaru so mad? He was a ninja! He should be used to secrets by now! The dead silence was thick with anxiety as he thought over what she had revealed. She hoped he would see thing from he point of view... She knew some of her friends would have found out eventually, and that their reactions couldn't be depended on, but she really didn't want to loose his friendship. They were good friends, and her close relationship with Ino meant they saw each other a lot…

"I guess I understand that but..."

Naruto felt a little relief that he was going with the situation for now but she didn't like the sound of that last conjunction at all. What else could he spring on her after this of all things?

"...there's no guarantee you'll even reach him in time. I know you don't want to hear this but you should just give up on him! If Tsunade is worried about you as well then-"  
"Don't you think I know that? Don't you think I _know_ how much _easier_ it would be to accept the fact that I may never see him again instead of... Instead of _this_?"

Naruto gestured towards the ruined tree that she had stolen leaved from for her earlier training, and the scattered bark from the impact of her Rasengan.

"I know it would be best to give up, but I don't want to, and I don't see what that has to do with _you!_ It doesn't affect you! It is _my_ decision to make and live with, _not yours,_ so why are you so mad at me?"

She glared at him taking deep breaths to make up for that released during her yelling. Shikamaru's face hadn't changed at all, he looked as calm as he always did. The only indication to his anger was the white bleeding through his skin over his knuckles.

"You really think this has nothing to do with me?" he asked.

Naruto didn't know what the tone in his voice was supposed to convey. Was she supposed to feel guilty? How could it have anything to do with him? It was her decision, not his! She gave a firm nod, still not looking him in the eye. She thought he had left when nothing happened. There was no reaction at all, and she let out a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding in.

Then his mouth slammed into hers; it lasted only a moment - she was completely shocked - but then she immediately pulled away, pushing him off of her with one arm and edging away from him in confusion and surprise.

"Still think watching you loosing your mind isn't my business?" he asked.

Naruto stared at him, a hand rising to her lips to check, to see if he really had kissed her. What was going on? Shikamaru didn't like her; he was just a friend from her graduating year to her! What had he… Why…?

Her thoughts were a mess, and she was so deep in thought and shock that she didn't notice him leave the training field, letting her absorb the new information. She was still there when Kakashi and Asuma turned up the next morning, soaked from the rain and just as confused as she had been the night before.

* * *

_**I've re-written this three times and I'm still not happy with it, but if I spend any longer on it, I'll really go insane. I keep going back over it, but I don't know what else to add or take out or edit or... **_

_**I really don't know what to do with it; really. I hate chapters like that, but I really wanted to get this up and over with. I'm unusually nervous about this chapter.**_

_**There's some ItaIno there, but if relationship problems could be solve that easily, the divorce rate in the UK would be a lot lower. Shikamaru is making his own move, Naruto is feeling the pressure, Sasuke's plot is emerging, and Orochimaru is finally treating him like he should have from the very start. **_

_**Seriously, if the guy didn't want to get killed, he should have been more careful what he taught him.**_

_**Hope you liked, even if I still feel like re-writing it again.**_

_**Nat.  
xxx**_


	8. Act VIII: It's A Heartache

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

**

* * *

**

**ACT II: SCENE VIII  
****~ IT'S A HEARTACHE ~**

_____**

* * *

**_

Ino blinked awake, and sat up groggily; after a quick glance around the room she vaguely recognised it as Itachi's. Then she felt the warmth; turning her head around, she was greeted with Itachi's sleeping face, and identified the warmth as his arm on her waist. It was one of the few times she had seen him so relaxed...

Realisation dawned on her, and she immediately fell out of the bed with a loud squeak; oh god, she'd had sex with Itachi! Real, actual, sex! This was bad, bad, _bad!_ What was she supposed to do? Itachi was going to be more than a little confused when he woke up and found her naked on his bedroom floor!

This would have been so much easier if they had had something to drink, then she could have something to blame her lack of responsibility on; this was not what she'd had in mind when she said she wanted Itachi to tell her why he was worried, or if he liked her or...

All right, maybe at some point she would have been working towards such a result, but not like this! This was not how things were supposed to go! This was not communication! Where was the communication? There was supposed to be communication!

Maybe Naruto could shed some light on this; she remembered she and Sasuke have something of a similar problem after the wave mission that lasted for weeks before things were cleared up. Obviously, it wasn't quite the same magnitude, but the principle was the same.

And since Itachi was something of a role model for Sasuke, he was bound to have influenced a few things in his younger brother. She knew Itachi very well but right now she didn't have a clue as to how to face him or what was going through his mind; she'd guess confusion, because there plenty of it going around her neck of the woods right now.

Taking care to be quiet, she picked herself up, taking a moment to glance at his bedside alarm - six am. That was good! She could sneak back into her house, or maybe Naruto's would be better; her brother would know something the moment she walked in the door, never mind her father.

Picking up her skirt from the floor, she tiptoed out of the room. After some searching, she eventually found and pulled on her various articles of clothing littering the hallway, though her sandals remained lost.

She paused for a moment before heading out of the door; if she knew Itachi, and she knew him very well, then he would probably go worry crazy again if she just left without a trace. She should probably just wait for him to wake up but...

He had to work this out by himself if she wanted anything from it; she didn't want anything to come form this because he felt like he had to - and he would, because he was the self-sacrificing type. The less she saw of him, the better it would be until he could come to his own conclusions.

Quickly finding the notepad in a desk drawer and a pencil, she scribbled a short not making an excuse about going to see Tsunade and talking to Naruto about the note from Sasuke, along with some other advice, before heading out of the door barefoot. She couldn't be bothered looking for her stupid sandals.

Walking through the streets, her thoughts were so absorbed in what had happened, what she was doing now, and what may happen, that she didn't even sense her blonde team mate until she had walked into her and they had landed in a tangled heap on the ground.

_

* * *

_

Naruto was still in the same frozen position Shikamaru had left her in by six am, completely confused. The most she had educed so far was that Shikamaru was too nosey for his own good, and seemed to like her a bit more than she had originally thought.

That was probably progress, but it didn't really feel that way; it was distracting if anything. She was supposed to be working on manipulating her wind chakra, not fretting over Shikamaru!

Kakashi took one look at her on arrival and immediately sent her home with orders to shower and get a few hours of sleep. She had been about to protest, but the memory of Ino collapsing from exhaustion changed her mind.

What was she supposed to do about this? She knew Shikamaru wasn't going to let this go without a fight - she wondered if stubbornness was a quality that all Konoha ninja were born with - but she honestly didn't want to face him.

The reason being she already knew what his arguments would be, and while they would be completely logical, she couldn't give two rats asses about them. It was made even worse with his personal interest in her now!

She wanted to keep him as a friend, but that was easier said than done! How could she keep it up when he already told, in his own roundabout way, that she should just forget about Sasuke and…?

She couldn't even form the words in her head for crying out loud! It didn't even form into a functional thought! This was not what she wanted to be fretting over! Why did he have to go and do that?

Walking back through the streets, she was so frazzled that she didn't even notice Ino until she had crashed into her and fallen to the street in a tangled mass of limbs.

_

* * *

_

The soft click of the front door stirred Itachi from slumber, groaning, he pulled his head back under his pillow in an attempt to block the sunlight poking over his window sill. His arm grasped the empty blankets and pulled them over his head.

Wait, they shouldn't be empty should they? His eyes widened and he sat up in the bed, the pillow falling from the back of his head and his hair standing up every which way, matching the alarm on his face.

Oh sweet mother of fire, what had he done? This had to be a bad thing; there was no way this was good! Well, in one way it was good. In one way was very, _very _good. In another it was so very, very, badly, badly, _wrong _that he couldn't even think of a decent verb to refer to it with.

Ino's absence told him she had already woken up, and had most likely left in a freaked out mess without her sandals. That didn't surprise him though - Ino was a morning person, he was distinctly not a morning person - but the context of this was just not the best they could have hoped for.

On the up side, he was a significantly less confused over whether he had, for want of a better term, romantic feelings towards the vanished blonde. Sort of. Simply Knowing that his feelings weren't platonic didn't mean he knew which type of romantic. This was far too much in one go for either of them, let alone him and his confusion.

And more to the point, if Tsunade found out about this, he was dead; she had charged him with her student's care and what had he done? He'd fucked her against a wall and a floor, whilst she was suffering from severe chakra deficiency. That was what he had done.

He hoped Tsunade wouldn't make him write a mission report for this...

Itachi flopped back onto the pillows, his head in his hands and lightly tugging on the front strands of his hair - he was beginning to see why his sister tore at her pigtails so often. What in the name of holy fire was wrong with him?

Knowing sleep was not going to return no matter how much he begged it, he dragged himself out of the bed in search of clothing - found in his dresser, and then the corridor, before venturing into the living room.

The best thing to do would be to find Ino; not right away, because he was certain she would want some time to process things by herself this time, but this was something they wouldn't be able to dance around like last time, especially since he was part of team seven now.

That was going to make things awkward if he didn't explain himself soon; the fact she had been seriously intending on walking away from him last night was enough to tell him that she wasn't going to wait forever for an answer.

His eyes caught a small folded rectangle of paper on the sofa. There was no name on it, but he knew it must be Ino who had left it there. Not knowing what else to do wit it, he unfolded it and glanced over Ino's messy handwriting. She had scribbled a lot of words out, but the message was still legible.

______

For the sake of sanity, I think its best we both take some time to think things over; I'll talk to Tsunade so don't worry about her – if there's anything desperately important, I'll probably be staying with Naruto for a while. I guess I'll drop some of my shifts at the hospital, but in return you have to do some thinking too. Don't poison yourself cooking; get Naruto to do it - I don't know how Jiraiya taught her, but she can make food edible now.

Ino.

Itachi ran a hand through his hair, trying to get his thoughts into some sort of order. Now he had written confirmation that he had an undisclosed time-limit, he felt a little calmer for some reason. Was it because it was more orderly? Was this Ino's way of helping him organise his thought process?

He'd accused Sasuke of being stunted when it came to girls in the past – or more specifically Naruto – but he was beginning to feel like a complete and utter hypocrite. He had believed that his emotions surrounding Ino were merely platonic, then he considered otherwise, then he wasn't sure, and then he'd...

He was git. There was no other word he could think of; he was a complete and utter git to do that. He may not have wanted Ino to leave last night, but she had been ready to do so – she didn't want to confuse things more than they already were, but he'd completely ignored her opinion.

He felt like he'd just thrown her feelings back in her face without meaning to, and he was certain there would not be a quick fix for it. The fact that Ino was gone now told him that she – the only one who had been certain in the first place – was completely out of her depth, but she was still trying to make this easier for him with her stupid note.

There was no mistaking it.  
He. Was. A. Jerk.

_______

* * *

_

With some squawking, Naruto and Ino untangled themselves, and stared at each others dishevelled appearances. Naruto, being the quicker to reach a conclusion, stared at a small red mark on her friend's neck before pulling on her bunches in frustration.

"You were supposed to _____talk _to him, not _____sleep _with him Ino!" Naruto berated, giving her friend several admonishings thump on the shoulder as she did so.  
"You- _Ow!_ You can't say shit! You look- _Ow!_ Stop That! You look like crap too!"

Naruto ignored her, and continued to thump her for several more moments before dragging her in the direction of her apartment. There was no way it was a perfect solution, but there was no denying that Ino would need some time way from Itachi, nor that Itachi would need time to get his head screws tightened up.

Reaching the apartment complex she began wrestling with her door handle. He was obviously heading in the right direction, but he could still use a little help. She'd have to have a talk with him some time. Some time soon. Point a few things out to him and what not. If she could find him – he might completely avoid her for fear of awkwardness.

Speaking of awkwardness, she wasn't certain she would be able to look Shikamaru in the eye for twenty years! Finally wrestling the door open, Naruto busied herself in the kitchen, opening up containers of instant ramen and emptying the contents into a saucepan as her companion headed for her shower.

Never mind Ino's Itachi drama, she had a Shikamaru spectacle to deal with, and she needed some major comfort food.

Hot comfort food; that night out on the training field had been cold! She poured on boiling water and waited fro the mixture to cook before depositing all five cartons worth into a giant mixing bow reserved for the purpose. She paused for a long time before picking up a second pair of chopsticks and flopping down cross-legged on her bed, digging into her food.

Ino emerged from the shower looking a little less flustered and immediately pounced on the second set of chopsticks. She sat identically to Naruto on the other side of the giant bowl and scarfed down on the noodles before turning her eyes to her companion.

"All right, I spilled my stuff – your turn" she instructed, taking another ravenous bite of the noodles.

Naruto greatly debated whether she should scream curses on Shikamaru like she normally would – Ino was his cousin after all – but quickly shook the thought out of her head. Not telling Ino would be far worse than doing otherwise. Besides, it was only fair.

"Shikamaru" she grumbled, wondering if just that would trigger some sort of reaction from her friend.  
"Oh god, what did he do?"

Naruto finished chewing on her mothfull of noodles.

"Well... he knows about Sasuke and Itachi, and he knows about the crazy nightmares. Oh, and he stuck his tongue down my throat…" Naruto replied with a wave of her hand – as if the matter was merely an annoying fly to be swatted aside.

Ino started choking on her instant ramen; Naruto leant over and gave her a quick thump on the back. After a few deep breaths Ino had a bug-eyed expression on her face.

"He actually _________________told _you? How did he find out? He is so _________________dead _when I catch up with him..." she trailed off muttering to her self about too-nosey-for-their-own-good Naras.

"He found out the same way we did, but he heard a good bit of a conversation Itachi was having with the Old Bat and the Old Perv... I think he said your dad was there too..." Naruto replied, searching her memory.

Ino stuffed more noodles into her mouth, an action mimicked by Naruto.

"Why are our love-lives so messed up?" Ino complained around her mothfull.

Naruto gave her a withering look.  
"Seriously, you're asking this ___________________________________now?"_

Ino threw a noodle at her.

* * *

"Will that work? _...It doesn't sound like it will work_" Zetsu asked dubiously, both halves speaking in unified uncertainty.

"I'll have to re-establish the connection in her mind, but I think I can make a few influences even now; she is getting desperate now – very desperate. It won't be that hard to manipulate her – we already know she is susceptible to illusions, and she's got enough insecurities that I probably won't need to use much of my own imagination to make it..." the dark haired man replied, voice muffled as he replaced his mask on his face.

"That's not what I meant! _...That one wont betray Konoha so easily, especially not if she finds out it involves the Yamanaka_" Zetsu replied, still uncertain about the way their companion was directing things.

"You underestimate how far she will go for Sasuke; I was only inside her mind once, when she was a Genin, and even _then_ she was incredibly fixated on him... I'll have to thank Kabuto for doing all the hard work – it's always so much easier to work with someone already skirting the fringes of madness..."

Zetsu continued to frown – the man in front of them was being too rash as always. It seemed to bee a genetic flaw in the Uchiha line. All the others they had seen over the years were just as quick to jump head first into trouble.

"You won't manage this for long – Itachi will suspect something very quickly, and he will not let this pass. He'll hunt you down and probably find you _...If they haven't already – they already know about the mausoleum."_

"By the time he does notice something, I'll have my hands around her so tightly she won't be able to breath without my say so – he'll be so focused on that, I'll be able to walk about directly under his nose."

"What about Danzou? _…Danzou's an idiot – he's too concerned with his own power to care what we want._ ...We'll never get the Kyuubi if he keeps buzzing around though! _...That's not a problem - __Itachi would kill him before he touched her."_

"Have Hidan and Kakuzu accomplished their task?" he asked, changing the subject and stopping the argument between the two halves of the plant-man.

Zetsu nodded.

"Kakuzu blew up the hospital in Kumogakure, and Hidan slaughtered most of the graduating students. _...The two-tail got away though."_

That fact in particular was not welcome to them; they had been looking forward to eating it ever since the one-tail had escaped them.

"That doesn't matter – the only one that really counts is the Kyuubi, that has to be last, but the others can wait; I trust the Raikage was suitably enraged?"

"He threw his table out of the side of his office_. He has anger problems."  
_"Good; tell Pein to send someone after the eight-tails soon, but tell him not to catch it… I'm going to need that one later on."

Zetsu continued to frown as the man walked out of the room, but neither side said anything. If the man was so confident, who were they to get in the way? It meant they could say _'we told you so'_ when Itachi chopped him into little pieces.

Zetsu absently wondered what the man would taste like.

_______________________________________

* * *

_

"Naruto! C'mere a second!"

Naruto looked up from the Rasengan she was trying to smother in wind chakra without setting it on fore in the process; Jiraiya stood on the edge of the training field with his scroll strapped to his back.

It was good to see him again, but she had to wonder what he was doing here. He hadn't been around much lately, even for training, because Tsunade had been sending him on Intel missions.

After telling Kakashi she would be back in a few moments, she left the first mass of clones to their manipulation training (the second bunch were busy having Sharingan 101 pounded into them by an unusually irritable Itachi), and jogged over to greet him.

"What are you doing here Perv?"

She asked curiously; his expression was much less jovial than it normally was, and that usually meant serious discussions relating to things like the Klepto fur ball.

"I have a mission to Amegakure coming up; I wanted to discuss a few things before I left" he replied.  
"_Amegakure?_ Isn't that place in the middle of a civil war right now? Why do you have to go_ there?_" Naruto asked suspiciously.

She was sure there was something she was should remember about that place – they had talked about it just before she had left with Ino and Sai for the first rescue attempt. It had only been in passing, barley worth remembering, but she was certain there was something important about the place...

"The leader of Akatsuki is supposedly residing there; Tsunade is sending me there to have a nose around."

Naruto's blood froze; no wonder she had thought it sounded important! Her mind immediately switched from shock to apprehension – this had to be at least an A-Rank, if not an S-Rank mission! She had full confidence that her teacher would complete it – he was far from a pushover, and frequently sent Itachi crashing to the dirt in their occasional spars – but she couldn't help worrying; this was the Akatsuki...

"I wanted to go over the training I want to start on when I get back, amongst other things..."

Naruto nodded eagerly at the prospect of more training; it had to be important id he was taking the time to discuss this like he was. She hoped it wasn't anything to do with the Kyuubi again – that had been a complete and utter disaster...

"I'm going to take you up to Mt. Myobokuzan – now that the Akatsuki are seriously hunting down the hosts, I think you'll need to know how to use sage chakra in the future,"

Naruto's jaw dropped open for several moments in pure shock; he wanted to teach her sage mode? The thing with the toad-face making? He honestly wanted to teach it to her?

"There's another move of your father's that I wan-"

Before he could finish his sentence, she let out an uncharacteristic squeal of delight and gave the man a suffocating hug. She had seen him use sage mode only once, against some Iwa ninjas during their training trip, and she had been bursting to learn it ever since.

"Seriously? Really for real?" she crowed excitedly.  
"Yes, yes, let go of me before I suffocate brat!" he mumbled out in reply.

She could hardly believe her luck; she'd been itching to try sage mode, but Jiraiya had been insistent her chakra control needed more work – especially since he had meddled with the seal – before she go anywhere near it.

_…It won't help; power can only delay time. It won't stop it - even if you do learn the Sage Arts, it won't be enough to save him from Orochimaru…_

Naruto blinked, one, then again. Stupid head - she knew there was a time limit, and she didn't need her own subconscious butting in to tell her that. She would get the training done, and then kick snake butt. That was all there was to it.

"But that's not all I came here to tell you"

Naruto looked back at him inquisitively; what else could he have to say? He seemed to be going down Serious Road again, so she was certain it didn't have anything to do with her training.

"I want you to go talk to the elders after your mission if I'm not back yet; it's well past time they sat down and explained themselves to you"

He muttered the last part, but not quite beyond her realm of earshot; Naruto wasn't too enthralled with the idea of meeting the elders – she already had her maternal grandparents, she didn't really want all that much to do with her paternal ones.

Besides the fact it would be awkward for her, she knew they weren't all that interested in meeting her. She'd seen them a couple of times when the third Hokage was alive; they weren't the sort of people she could see herself getting along with.

Her husband wasn't all that bad in comparison, but that Koharu woman kept giving her anxious glances. They were a bit too wrapped up with the village as well; she was all for village loyalty, but they went beyond the limit.

"I wouldn't worry too much, I plan on talking to them myself, so this is just in case; if you do get back before me, just tell that stupid woman I sent you" he grinned, easing a little of her unease.

"Do I have to go? The elders kind of weird me out..." she grumbled, still not struck on the idea of paying them a visit.  
"Yes; it's well past time that woman did things right by you, and she won't do it without a kick up the arse" he replied in a no-nonsense tone.

Naruto sighed, but dropped the matter; Jiraiya wouldn't be so insistent on this if he didn't think it was worth the unwilling effort.

"That's all I needed to tell you; I'll see you when you get back, or after – take care of yourself brat!"

He headed off back towards the main village gates, just visible beyond the line of trees with a jovial wave of his hand. Naruto yelled a short reply, and hurried back to her elemental training. She had her own mission to prepare for.

* * *

Itachi didn't know if Tsunade was oblivious or had a sick sense of humour; he'd suspect the latter, but would never ever suggest such a thing for fear of death. He was in the interrogation department, looking for Ino's father to pass on a set of folders Tsunade had insisted he transport instead of her Chunin lackeys; this was her revenge, he knew it!

Itachi knew how to keep his mind blank, but Ino had explained the Yamanaka mind reading capabilities to him once; he could keep his thoughts as clear as he could but that would be useless against Inochi.

He would pick up an impression of nerves no matter how blank his mind or face was; Itachi was certain that Inochi was a reasonable man, but he didn't think reason was applied to the man who had shared carnal relations with your daughter...

Even walking through the halls felt like he was walking to his death; if he was lucky, he might be able to just slip the files onto the Inochi's desk. Itachi did not run away from a fight, but the possibility of seeing Ino's father was considerably more frightening right now.

He stopped outside Inochi's office and immediately gulped in anxiety. He knocked on the door, trying to reassure himself with the knowledge that attacking a fellow ninja was a crime.

A brief mumble from within told him it was all right to enter, and he pulled on the door handle, doing everything he could think of to quell his nerves. On the other side of the door, Inochi lay slumped over his desk, blinking blearily between two handfuls of paperwork.

"Tsunade-sama asked me to deliver these" he informed him hurriedly.

He seemed to be in luck – Inochi had obviously been forced to pull an overnight shift, and if his head was fuzzy enough, he might be able to sneak by without notable notice. He didn't know if Inochi knew what had passed between himself and his daughter, but he would put it past his all-knowing mind.

"What? _More?_ Tell her to keep the paperwork to herself if she wants that interrogation report done on time!" he complained as Itachi headed back towards the door.  
"I'll pass on the message Mr. Yamanaka" Itachi assured him with a nod, turning back towards the door again.

He really had thought he'd gotten away without being noticed until Inochi called his name again; turning to face the man, he was horrified to see his suddenly rejuvenated eyes glinting intently.

"I've never visualised you to be a rash actor, that was always Deidara if I remember rightly, but I also know you've been somewhat resistant to Ino – which makes me think you're confused..." he ventured as if he were discussing something as menial as the recent rise in the clan tax.

Itachi was in tow minds as to whether he should be worried or not; the Yamanakas were a rather laid-back family – likely from their constant mental connection – but he'd seen his father go ballistic when he caught Kiba giving Naruto a wolf-whistle a few weeks before their graduation too.

"How do you-"

Inochi tapped his forehead with one finger.

"The only thoughts completely blocked to other Yamanakas are the private ones; part of Ino's mind is completely blocked from me and the other clan members now"

That answered that question then; a small sense of relief washed over him when he realise Inochi would not know exactly what he had gotten up to with his daughter the previous night. That was dashed by the revelation he knew they had been doing something.

"You're so busy looking out for other people you've forgotten that you can have some selfish moments too; make sure Tsunade gets that message! I was being completely serious!" he finished, shooing Itachi out of his office and going back to the piles of paper.

Itachi turned silently and closed the door behind him. He was, as expected, more confused and terrified upon leaving, but not for the reasons he had been expecting. Wandering down the hallways of the interrogation department, he didn't notice the new head of the police department heading directly towards him head engrossed in the horror that was paperwork.

The collision sent Shisui's papers flying all over the hallways, and they both landed rather unceremoniously on the floor; Shisui blinked as he regained his composure, recognising his best friend as the obstacle in his path.

"You walked into me..." he stated, still not completely comprehending what had just happened.

Itachi said nothing, instead busying himself with picking up the papers Shisui had dropped with his unintentional aid; if he didn't get away from the crazy man he would hound him to the ends of the earth for an explanation, and he didn't want to give him one. Well, it was more like he couldn't really, since that would mean knowing what he was doing, and romance was one of the few areas he would admit to being completely confounded by.

Unfortunately, his best friend had an annoying tendency to be undeterred when his interest was aroused.

"You walked into me!" he proclaimed loudly, gesturing with a pointed, almost horrified digit.

"Congratulations on establishing this fact, I have to-"  
"Oh no! You are _not_ getting out of this!"

Itachi mumbled one of Naruto's choicer curses when the man grabbed his shit collar with a free hand in the midst escape; Shisui was more interested in one of the marks on his neck that were just visible on his skin.

"Holy crap! _You_ had sex? I didn't think you knew what that was!" he gawped, thankfully quietly.

Itachi glanced around to make sure no-one was listening in on their conversation; it was one thing having Inochi know what had happened between him and Ino (though by the explanation, _'Inochi'_ was just a replacement for _'the entire Yamanaka clan'_) was one thing, but he'd rather not have the entire village tuning in.

"Thank god for that! I thought Ino was going have buy a book on the facts of life before you two finally stopped dancing around each other!"

Hello Joe, what was Shisui talking about? He hadn't mentioned Ino at all; how did Shisui know? Apparently, his friend was as good a mind reader as Ino was, because he quickly answered his internal questioning.

"Dude, the whole village has bet on when you were going to grow a pair; the only variants were time and what Ino was going to have to do to start the spurt"

Start the spurt? That sounded so crass... but it did remind him that there had been no contraception involved the night before. At all. Unless Ino was continently using her own anti-sprog medication, that wasn't a good thing. Dear god, he was falling at the first hurdle with this whole mess. And apparently Shisui was still reading his mind.

"Itachi, please tell me you paid attention when Uncle Fugaku gave you the how-to-use-contraceptives speech..."

Itachi did pay attention at the time, he really did, but he hadn't really had much opportunity to actually put that into practice... everything had just happened so fast...

"Okay, I'm going to go drop of these reports, then I'm going to come back, and then... Yeah, you need help with this..." Shisui mumbled, backing up from him slowly, as if he was talking to a jittery mammal.

Itachi was still waiting in the same spot when Shisui returned from dropping off his files.

* * *

Ino peered around the corner of her front door and down the hallway; her clan may be aware that she'd had sex, but that didn't mean she had to run into her brother – she'd never hear the end of it if she did. After checking to make sure the younger blonde was elsewhere, she quickly darted down the hall to her own bedroom.

She closed the door and let out a sigh of relief when she finally made it into her room, and leaned back against the door in relief; she had avoided her brother, and her father seemed to be elsewhere at the moment, so she wouldn't have to face him either.

It wasn't that she was worried about his reaction; he liked Itachi and respected him as a ninja. In fact, her father had been nothing but supportive about the whole thing – he had even given her a few pointers on occasion.

What on earth had she done? She shouldn't have left like that – sure she left a note but it was still a note. Itachi was a dunderhead with this sort of thing – it seemed to be a genetic defect considering Sasuke's horrible attempt at confession three years ago – so a note was hardly the sort of thing that would work in her benefit.

It was more likely to do the opposite! Ino flopped onto her bed and screamed her frustration out onto her pillow; she had completely blown it! So what if Itachi needed to figure things out? He'd probably shoot her down now!

He was a reserved sort of person, and she _knew_ that the six year age gap would bother him - long before her unreservedness even got close - if he was left to decide thing by himself.

Damn it, damn it all to hell, she should have just walked out when she'd had the chance! Why did he even stop her like that when there was such a high probability that nothing would come form it? Her feelings may be a little more than just attraction, but Itachi had only just seemed to realise she wasn't a kid any more...

She wasn't certain that his musings would give her the answers she wanted to hear. Giving her pillow a whack with enough force to send the feathery stuffing cascading into the air, she got up and dug out one of her herb packs from under her bed.

After a pew pinches and dustings in a pestle and mortar, she dissolved the contents with a swill of water on her tongue.

Honestly, it was like she had ignored that stupid video back in the academy completely last night; even in that sort of situation there should have been a little bit more responsibility on... well, one of them should have used their brain!

She had never seen the point of the contraceptive medicine Tsunade had taught her at the time she learnt it – there were far better drugs on the market – but she would have to slip her a surprise bottle of sake some time...

She didn't feel like popping into the chemists or the hospital right now.

* * *

"All right, what happened?" Shisui asked wearily, plonking a bottle of sake down on the table as he sat down.

Itachi wasn't quite certain on how he had come to be drinking with the man in the middle of the day, but it didn't seem like a bad idea right now; he had never consumed alcohol before – he usually turned his nose up at the stuff – but he understood the social convention was to drink with a friend when trying to find solutions to these sorts of things.

He remembered his father doing the same thing several times in the past, and though he wasn't quite sure what the reasoning behind that was, he was certain that the action had been more useful than simply generating a hangover. Things usually seemed to sort themselves out for him once he'd regained his brain.

It was feasible to believe the process would work similarly for him – if it was a success, he might try the same thing with Naruto. She _really_ needed to vocalise things more if what he had seen inside her head was any indication.

"We had sex" he replied to his cousin as if it explained everything.

Itachi wasn't certain, but Shisui looked like he wanted to cry. The man silently poured out a saucer of the alcoholic drink and gestured towards the ceramic liquid holder. Itachi obediently took a sip of the liquid. Then another. Then he swallowed it all and poured himself another helping. His cousin visibly relaxed beyond his notice.

"Okay, lets try this again, and this time, start with _why_ - not the _what._"

Shisui spoke calmly and slowly as if to a small child; he was glad Itachi didn't notice or he'd probably been thrown in the river, and he didn't like the river – he had a horrible tendency to sink, and had almost drowned once from another irritation he had cause his romantically-stunted cousin.

"She was walking out of the door."

Again, Itachi didn't really explain the situation very well; Shisui wished Naruto was here to help him – of all his cousins, she was the only one who had a semblance of a brain (not much of one though – he was still a bit weirded out by the Sasuke thing). She knew Ino better than he did too, so she would probably already have a decent understanding of what had happened.

He was fumbling for the light switch in complete darkness here; she was walking out of the door? Who had been responsible for teaching Itachi about how to deal with people? He'd dig up the git and kill him! _Walking out of the door?_ What kind of reason was that? It didn't make sense at all!

"All right… Itachi, you do know that walking out of a door isn't a reason to have sex right?" he pleaded hopefully.

Itachi rolled his eyes, and Shisui fought down the urge to strangle him.  
"Of course I do – I may be socially stunted, but I know at least _that_ much."  
"Then why _did_ you?"  
"...I didn't know what else I could do; when I say walking out, I mean _walking out_. She... I have been... things..."

Itachi frowned then, took another swill of the sake – he needed more of the stuff if he was going to have a heart-to-heart talk with someone other than Naruto or Ino for once; that way he could blame the uncharacteristic revelations on the drink. Or maybe Shisui...

"I was - I am confused, and Ino was sick of it; I stopped her and things got more confused, and when I woke up she'd left anyway with just a stupid note!" he grumbled, pouring another saucer and swallowing again.

Shisui groaned when Itachi reached for the sake bottle itself instead of the saucer. This was going to take longer than he had thought by the sound of things; apparently, uncle Fugaku hand neglected to tell his eldest about the confusing emotions usually associated with romance when he explained the facts of life.

"So basically, you don't know hat you feel, and Ino is finally getting impatient?"  
"I suppose that's one way of putting it... I just don't know what the solution to all this is..." Itachi muttered, taking another swig from the bottle.

Shisui frowned; if Itachi was looking for a solution, he was barking up the completely wrong tree. Logic and reason didn't get along with romance – they ran for the windows when those messy things called emotions involved themselves in things. That was probably his problem; Itachi had a logical mind, and like most of the men in their family, he was poor with people and emotions in general (Shisui was one of the few exceptions to this rule).

It could have been attributed to being place on the front lines so early; the only interaction he'd had as a child were with his team, family, and with the enemy Ninjas whose throats he had sliced open.

Or he could just be an idiot with women; both were fairly plausible explanations. In any sense, he needed to stop thinking like a ninja in a tight situation with the enemy, and more like an average guy with problems in his love life. He had to stop thinking with his logical mind. This was going to take a lot of explaining...

"You don't need a solution Itachi; you're treating this whole thing like a battlefield, and while it seems that way, logic and reason aren't going to help you out of this one..."

Itachi stopped his hand as it reached fro the bottle once again, and frown of confusion playing across his face.  
"I don't understand; I need to fix this, but you say I don't need a solution?"

Well that hadn't worked as well as he had hoped. Maybe if he directed thing more towards Itachi's personal problems he would have more success.

"I know that doesn't make sense but just trust me all right? Before you can fix this, you need to know what you're repairing; you don't know what yore feeling right now, so how can you fix this thing with the two of you if you don't even know what it is in the first place?"

Itachi's eyes widened a millimetre, and his hand dropped to the table in resigned frustration.

"I hadn't thought of that"  
"Exactly; you're so bust trying to repair your relationship, you haven't taken the time to think about what kind of relationship you want to be repairing"

Shisui egged his cousin on eagerly; this was good! This was progression! Progression was very good!

"But that still leaves me in the same muddle; how am I supposed to figure this out if I can't use a normal thought process?" he countered – at least it was a valid counter this time though.

Shisui shrugged.

"I don't know – figuring theses sort of things out differs from person to person; I knew I had something of a thing for Anko when she didn't bore me to death with all her plots to kill or castrate Orochimaru. I didn't understand half of them because they were so convoluted - still don't - but I found them fascinating. I don't thinks that's going to work for you though."

Itachi was not particularly enthralled by his answer.  
"Obviously; Ino is not Anko. So? How do I figure this out?"

Shisui thought about it; he had made progression on the matter, but that wouldn't be enough to get his cousin out of the mess he had wound himself up in. Itachi needed facts and evidence to base his conclusions on, and just his own advice wouldn't be enough if he were to think of it as such.

An idea popped into his mind, and he decided it was better than nothing; he'd just have to give Naruto a heads-up on the whole thing since this would eventually fall into her hands.

"Try asking around – once you have an idea of relationships in general have another look at Ino and see if you notice anything different. That's the best I can give you right now"

He instructed his cousin with a no-nonsense look (he could pull of the Uchiha glare when he wanted to, no matter what the other clan members thought). Itachi gave him a contemplative look before nodding... drowsily?

"Shisui?"  
"Yes?"  
"Why have you made a clone?"  
"Clone? What are you talking abou-"

Shisui slapped a hand to his forehead when his cousin keeled over onto the table, snoring.  
Maybe he shouldn't have bought that sake.

* * *

_**Yes. I'm a terrible updater. In my defense, I was inundated with plot bunnies, and now I've got up to chapter eighteen written and double-checked grammatically. I know where this story is going to end up, it's just getting to it that's the problem. I don't have college right now either, so I have plenty of free time to Type, Type, Type awaaaaay.**_

_**I have worked on another story that I'm not going to publish until I finished writing too - I have a horrible problem with updates, so this is me trying to learn a lesson by not putting it up until it's completed.**_

_**I've had to go back and make sure things tie in with the first story, and correct a few odd bits like bad typing along the way, but nothing much. I will say that the first chapter of this story had been changed, since Yamato does not exist past occasional mention in this universe.**_

_**I don't like Yamato, so I wrote him out. Finally, we're getting to a change away from canon. I know it took a long time, but I needed the development for later on in the story. It's actually very crucial, as you will see if you keep reading! Cookies to the nice reviewers! **_

_**Nat.**_  
_**xxx **_


	9. Act IX: Confusion

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

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* * *

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**ACT II: SCENE IX  
****~ CONFUSION ~**

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* * *

**

Naruto burst into Tsunade's office panting for breath – she had just received the word from Tsunade that team eight had returned from their mission; it was time for them to leave for Water Country. Glancing around, she could see Kiba grinning a doggish grin as he teased Ino about something.

Shino and Hinata were there too, along with Itachi; he looked suitably awkward and jittery (though she doubted anyone but she and Ino would be able to pick up on it), but apparently his talk with Shisui had gotten him thinking. It seemed to have given him a hangover too – but that was just funny. She was glad someone had talked to him because she had given Ino as much heart-to-heart as she could at the moment.

That stupid, pineapple-headed, idiot standing in the corner of the room had her head all confused; Shikamaru caught her gaze and she quickly took an interest in the exasperated face of the Hokage instead. She couldn't even look at Shikamaru right now; this was about Sasuke! He had no business messing with her mind like this when she was supposed to focusing.

She had enough problems without Shikamaru messing things up for her right now, especially with Ino and Itachi trying to go in a dead-end left when they should be going right. She focused her concentration on Tsunade's words as she explained the outline of the mission; it wasn't as easy as it should have been.

Her gaze kept flickering towards him; why had he said it now of all times? He clearly knew everything, so he should know that no matter what he said she wouldn't be able to just drop Sasuke from her life. Even if the romantic side of things didn't work out (which she seriously doubted) he was still her brother.

No matter which way she swung it, he was always going to be family, and if Shikamaru thought he was going to be able to magically erase that... was he doing one of those civilian drugs or something? Why? Why _now?_ Why did he have do this _now?_ He knew that this was an important time for her, and she needed to be focusing on Sasuke!

Why the hell did he have force his way into her thoughts? She was supposed to be worrying about Sasuke, but he was so far from her mind that the low success estimate of the mission completely sailed over her head.

* * *

Naruto felt like tearing her hair out in response to the awkward silence between her brother and her best-friend. She was literally in the middle as they walked trough the forest on the border between Fire and Water Country, Kiba and his team-mates following with Sai and Kakashi a few meters behind.

If she had been given the option, she would have left them to it, but Kiba was insistent that someone remain with them to make sure sparks did not fly; no-one trusted Sai not to make a mess of things, and Kakashi had magically disappeared for that moment, no one wanted to give Hinata the job, and Kiba and Shino were convinced Itachi would kill them if they tried, so _she_ was stuck with the job.

She was even wishing creepy-eyes Yamato was here to scare them out of this... awkwardness that had smothered them. Naruto didn't have much experience with relationships – her only notable one was with Sasuke, which said everything without needing to – but she really didn't understand what the problem _was!_

Trying to get Ino to grow a backbone about this was useless – she would never ever be able to do something she knew Itachi would find uncomfortable on purpose, especially after what had happened the last time she tried. She was waiting for Itachi to make a decision himself.

She somewhat understood Ino's problem; she wouldn't be able to do that to Sasuke either, at least not voluntarily. In perspective though, she didn't think she and Sasuke would have this problem. Their only problem was Orochimaru; they both knew what they wanted, unlike Itachi. The idiot couldn't decide whether he was coming or going where Ino was concerned lately.

Though if this was any sort of signal, she would guess it was a signal towards progression rather than remission; Itachi had established that Ino was not someone he held in a simple sisterly-friend position, but actually doing something with that information was a different matter entirely. Naruto wasn't quite sure yet on how to help him sort things out.

Ino stumbled over an exposed tree-root; Itachi had caught her before she had even had time to process the mental command to reach out and catch Ino. Her best friend stared at Itachi looking rather alarmed. Ino turned bright red, and hurriedly removed his arm from her waist, mumbling hurried stuttered apologies all the while. Itachi quickly cast his gaze back to the surroundings.

Naruto had to fight down the involuntary roll of her eyes as he coughed away the moment. Why were these two such idiots? Why couldn't just talk? Ino was good at talking most of the time, some people even thought she did too much of it! She should be able to communicate with Itachi right now!

Naruto was not saying go as far as to ignore the awkwardness, but this much was just crazy! It had been a week already! Contrary to Naruto's thoughts, Ino's concentration was not on Itachi as much as her friend guessed.

As a Yamanaka, the fluctuations that emotions created in chakra were Immediately picked up by her own mind whether she wanted to or not; she could feel the exasperation from Naruto, and though she was making a point of blocking Itachi's from her thoughts, she knew they were there.

Ever since they had come within fifty miles of the water country border, she had been picking up tiny slivers from the distant country; they were faint, incredibly faint, but on the edge of her mind she could pick up something she could only describe as... unpleasantness.

She couldn't give it a form really, she just knew that when they got closer to it, it would increase, and maybe then she would be able to classify it a little better. She also knew that if she was picking it up from beyond the border, then there was every chance she wouldn't be able to go near it.

"We'll stop here for the night and go over things for when we cross the border tomorrow" Kakashi stated, holding his hand up to bring the party to a halt.

Naruto took one glance at her brother and her best friend and gave an internal sigh of frustration as they fumbled their way around each other. Kiba dropped his backpack on the ground and stared at the two of them before crossing over to her with raised eyebrows.

"Have I _missed_ something here?" he asked gesturing with a wave of his hand between the two idiots glaring at each other, apparently over a spot for laying out their respective sleeping roles.

"You _really_ want me to answer that?"

Kiba gave Ino and Itachi another quick glance – now they were arguing over the sleeping roll proximities. Admittedly in hushed tones to prevent disturbing the others, and failing, but they were still arguing. Kiba took a step behind Naruto.

"You know what? I don't think I do."

* * *

Naruto stretched an awkward smile across her face as she turned one of the sausages on her stick into charcoal over the camp fire; Ino was sitting on her right and Itachi her left. She was in the middle, _again_. She hated being in the middle – people in the middle were either squashed or torn to bits in the process.

Really, she was doing that perfectly well without their help all by herself. This was getting beyond a joke! Even Kakashi was feeling uncomfortable and Kakashi was the living embodiment of relaxation! Sai could tell something was wrong! She had thought Shisui had made some progress – he had told her as much – but she was seriously beginning to doubt that.

"We need to be careful when we cross the border tomorrow. Why? Because encountering Kirigakure ninja could lead to trouble – we know so little about them, and they are not the most friendly of villages" Shino intoned.

Ino nodded along, glaring at her sausage, pretending not to notice Itachi watching her out of the corner his eye; this was where Naruto had her problem. If Naruto had been seated on the other side of the fire, it would be easier, but she was sitting between them, so it felt like Itachi was staring at her.

It was weird, and uncomfortable, and god those two needed to sort things out, or Itachi need to sort things out. Someone needed to sort this out!

"I-I think we should be more worried about the hideout itself... If this is one of Orochimaru's hideouts then..." Hinata fumbled over her words, almost dropping her own sausage into the fire.

Naruto was glad to see she wasn't the only one who found all this irritating and uncomfortable; between all the unresolved couple issues and distinct lack of concrete information, it was not a pleasant atmosphere. Ino didn't seem to be have a clue what they were talking about – she was seriously off on another planet for some reason – so Naruto was glad to see she wasn't the only one feeling the awkward, even if it was Hinata.

"There is a strong possibility that this Juugo is one of Orochimaru's experiments, it's not concrete but..." Itachi left it hanging.  
"Jeez, couldn't Sasuke have given us a little more to go on? We don't even know where were supposed to be looking! If he got a message out, the least he could do is-"

Kiba was sent fly back off of his log-seat as Ino's fist connected with his nose; Naruto stared at the empty spot beside Hinata, then to Kiba's bleeding nose, then to her team-mate. What on earth was wrong with Ino? Wasn't that a bit much? Sure she was just as irritated, but that was no reason to punch Kiba!

"Shut up Kiba! Just be grateful Sasuke even managed to get word to us!" she roared before stomping of into the depths of the woods surrounding them.

Hinata fluttered around looking for bandages whilst Naruto stared after he friend in shock; Ino was usually very vocal with things, but _this_ vocal? Itachi must be causing her much more grief than she had first thought. She gave Itachi a withering look as Kiba shot him a glare.

"This is _your_ fault dude! This is _so_ your fault!" Kiba yelled as his flustered team-mate dabbed at his bleeding nose with balls of cotton wool, gesturing with an angry digit to her alarmed brother.

* * *

Inoro Yamanaka was in a foul mood; why was he in a foul mood? Because he was stuck examining the hundred-year-old mushy corpse Ino and Naruto had dragged back with them from Suna instead of invading heads in the interrogation department.

It wouldn't be so bad if they could use the normal techniques, but Mr. Mushy just wouldn't stand up to them. He hated having to do everything by had, the DNA results hadn't even come back yet and they had been sent weeks ago! Those should have taken an hour at the very most!

He supposed the experience would have been more pleasant if Sakura been in a better mood than she had been recently, but he could blame that on Shikamaru - and on Tsunade's training.

Now that her chakra coils had finally been repaired she was throwing herself into the training like there was no tomorrow, and while he knew Tsunade's training was stressful (Ino had been horrific when she went through it), he figured Shikamaru was playing his part too.

The guy really didn't know when to quit; Sasuke was everything to his sister's team-mate – to Naruto, Shikamaru was barley more interesting than dirt in comparison. Frankly, he thought his cousin was fighting an up hill battle, and driving Sakura up the wall in the process.

Why did all the people he knew have such whacked out love lives? Not only were those feelings complicated, they were hard to keep straight! What happened to casual flings? They were so much simpler than messy things like emotions. Ino's love life was messy enough, but Naruto?

Ino had told him the specifics when he'd pestered her about the permanent blocks in her mind surrounding her team, and while he was over the weirded-out phase now, he had to agree with his own team-mate on some aspects of it; he couldn't believe doing so much for one person, even if they were family, was worth the price Naruto was paying for it.

Inoro's mumblings were interrupted as the door to the morgue was thrown opened by a haggard, exhausting looking Sakura. Her hair was sticking out in every which way from all the running she had obviously been practising in recent minuets, and was carrying one of the folders that had sent off to the labs.

"What have you got there? Is that the toxicology report?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

The toxicology had been sent off before the DNA test had, and they hadn't been completed either. Sakura shook her head with wide eyes, still trying to gather her breath and waving the file in his face.

"Not... toxicology... DNA testing..."

Inoro's eyes widened; he snatched the file from Sakura's weary hands and immediately began rifling through its contents. It was about damn time those came back! His eyes scanned over the general information on the blood group and chakra estimates; the guy must have had some pretty big reserves, but that wasn't unusual given the age of the body.

The guy must have been around during the clan wars, and back then big reserves were common – ninjas hadn't been such a developed system then, so they had relied on their reserves more, hence larger capacities. His eyes went over the rest of the information – no genetic defects, and there was confirmation of a bloodline too.

That hadn't been under any doubt considering where Ino and Naruto had found the body, but it was good to have confirmation; he did raise an eyebrow at the genetic make up identified within it though. It wasn't quite the same as the ones they normally saw in Uchihas with the Sharingan.

Reading further down, he came to the identification – he hadn't been expecting that given the age, but apparently the labs had dug it up. He scanned his eyes over the name and he almost fell over from the shock. He was frozen statue solid as his mind processed the information before he dashed to the intercom system; his mind was racing for explanations as he pressed the button and asked the assistant to send for the Hokage.

This was unreal; this was so far beyond belief he was beginning to wonder if he was in some kind of illusion or mind control technique – it wouldn't be the first time he had fallen prey to one of them after all. He still had trouble with the mind transfer, never mind the direct interrogation techniques and mental blocks his elder twin was so proficient with.

He honestly didn't know how else to explain what he was seeing! Ino had told him about Madara Uchiha attacking during the invasion, and they had been under the assumption that he was responsible for it, now he wasn't so sure; developing a longevity technique or something like Orochimaru's possession to see himself through the years was one thing, but surpassing death itself?

That was permanent no matter what a ninja did; sure people could be resuscitated, but after almost a hundred years? He found it very hard to believe that Madara would be capable of causing so much havoc when he was lying on the autopsy table, nothing more than a mushy pile of decomposing flesh and bone.

* * *

Naruto watched Itachi's had twitching before he finally made the motions of rising from his seat by the fire and following Ino. She waited until he was a little past her hearing before following him into the woods. After a few moments of running, she finally caught up with him before he crossed the river they had refilled the rations from.

"Itachi, let her cool off by herself – Kiba wasn't completely wrong about you earlier..." she informed him, yanking him down onto the grass to sit down again – he frowned at her, but at least he understood that he wasn't the best person to be offering comfort right now.

"Talk to me Itachi; you need to sort this out, but from where I'm standing you need help," she sighed, plopping down next to him.

He was quiet for several moments – frown still marring his face.

"I don't understand this at all."

Naruto snorted.

"Talk about stating the obvious Itachi; you shouldn't look at this like you can learn the basics out of a textbook or a scroll!"  
"You sound like Shisui..." Itachi grumbled.

Naruto couldn't help but grin.  
"Because he's right; you're too analytical sometimes – everything is a problem you have to solve straight out of the manual!"

Itachi's frown deepened.  
"I don't know what else to try – I don't understand this Naruto, I really don't know why... I just don't know, and I don't like not knowing things," he replied wearily, dropping his head in frustration.

Naruto patted his shoulder sympathetically; she understood the feeling of things spiralling beyond control all too well – it seemed to be the only thing she felt recently.

"Then don't try to understand it Itachi; you won't understand everything right now. Ino's been a friend to you too long for this change to be completely coherent right now" she replied, trying to go for the soothing angle again.

"I don't seem to recall you and Sasuke having this problem, and you went through the same thing at first didn't you?"

Naruto rolled her eyes.

"Well for one thing, Sasuke had felt that way for a year or so before saying anything. We didn't have Orochimaru to worry about either; there was time to think about things – You? You kiss her once, and then you fuck her brains out after that disaster of a rescue mission. Hardly the same thing" she told him pointedly.

Something seemed to catch her attention behind him – he turned his head, but found nothing. He didn't sense anyone else approaching them either. It must have been an animal of some kind. Distraction over, he turned his head back to the topic that was the centre of their discussion.

"Do you have to make it sound so crass?" he complained.

Naruto glared at him and he sighed again; he had no right to be complaining right now. Naruto had her own problems to be dealing with, but she was still trying to get him out of this mess he had wound himself up in.

"How did you see any difference with how you looked at Sasuke?" he asked, deciding to try using some of Shisui's advice and getting another outsider opinion.

Naruto blinked in surprise at the question; she dropped her head in thought for a short minuet.

"You and Ino definitely helped things along but... I think it was when my Sharingan first began manifesting – my memory improved so quickly, and it absolutely terrified me. Everyone told me the same thing – to just go with it, that it was just a photographic memory, but Sasuke was the only person I really listened to, even though he said the same thing as everyone else..." she replied quietly.

Her hand scuffled in the grass for a pebble; she threw it into the stream in front of them, watching the ripples intently. Itachi felt a little guilty then; he hadn't meant to drag things up for her. God knows, that was the last thing that she needed.

Well, that was not completely true – she needed to talk about things, much more than he was comfortable with – but he didn't like making her uncomfortable. He was supposed to be doing the opposite.

"I still don't... How can you keep this up? You know what it's doing to you; why not just let someone else do this?"

Naruto gave a surprised glare.  
"You mean give up?" she demanded hotly.

Itachi immediately shook his head; that hadn't translated well at all, and the last thing he needed was his sister to be putting him in the doghouse too. His mind raced as he tried to think of a better explanation.

Naruto seemed distracted again, and he flipped his head once again around the copse of trees surrounding them, looking for what had caught her attention.

He still couldn't see anything notably interesting, and brushed it aside.

"I just mean... Is it really worth it? Sasuke is family but... Naruto I'm worried about you. You're bottling everything up, and it's not doing you any good; I can only think you're going this far because of this relationship business since I'm not having the same reaction, and I really wonder if it's worth it..."

Naruto listened intently, her glare softening a little; she stared at the river again, and threw another pebble before standing up and turning away from him. She didn't look like she was enjoying the turn of conversation, but the fact she hadn't left him high and dry meant a lot.

"I honestly don't know Itachi – that's not the first time I've been asked that and I'm beginning to wonder myself... but worth it or not isn't important to me in the slightest." she replied.

"Then why?" he asked.

If Naruto herself was wondering if all the problems chasing Sasuke so frantically was worth it, why did she bother to put herself through all this? Naruto turned around to face him, and he was glad to she was not putting up a face like she had been so prone to recently.

"Because if I don't, it would be like loosing my mind anyway; I don't want a life without Sasuke in it. I don't care if I go a little crazy on the way if it results in getting him back home, back with us, with me... I don't need to understand it to keep going because it's just what I want – its pure selfishness, but I honestly don't care. That's why I go so far for Sasuke – because I'm being selfish."

With those final words, Naruto left Itachi to contemplate things by himself.

* * *

Ino hunched over at the base of the tree she had crumpled against after venting her frustrations out on some of its companions. She'd have to back and apologize to Kiba later, but first she needed to calm down.

There was so much rage coming from the direction the coast lay in; it was horrible, painful, and completely overwhelming. There was no doubt in her mind it was from Orochimaru's hideout, but for her to be able to sense this much rage and hatred and pain from so far away...

It was so strong, even the slightest irritation made her want to tear something apart. It had been a miracle she hadn't attacked Itachi during the journey, let alone Kiba. The strong echoes just flowed into her mind, and while her father may have been able to handle them, she wasn't quite skilled enough to keep them out; people admired he clan's telepathic ability, but it was things like this that turned into a disadvantage.

If she didn't get this under control, the whole mission could blow up in smoke and if that happened... She couldn't let it happen, not when this was quite probably their last chance to find Sasuke. It was easier said than done though; the sheer intensity that she was picking was close to drowning out rational thought, and was seriously giving her a migraine.

She was glad Itachi and Naruto hadn't chosen to come after her, or at least not right away. She knew Itachi would try to talk and she didn't really want to talk right now – too many emotions were flooding her mind that were influencing her own at the moment, and she didn't want to lash out him unnecessarily.

Her thoughts were interrupted when a disgruntled and rather untidy looking blonde with untidily windswept bunches fell from the sky above her and landed on the dirt in front of her with a loud thud. Naruto groaned as she picked herself up off the ground, and glared at a non-existent something up in the air.

She mumbled several curses to herself before turning around with a wince, and caught sight of her. Instead of looking surprised, she completely took things in her stride and grinned.

"You cooled down yet? I think I have a lead on the hideout location!"

Ino raised a speculative eyebrow; did Naruto honestly believe she was going to fall for such a blunt lie? She had a headache sure, but she could still pick up the fluctuations in Naruto mind that signalled a lie. Besides, she had just fallen out of thin air – if that wasn't odd, then Ino didn't know what was.

"Fine! I got a tip off from someone, and no, I'm not telling you who! Let's just go with it okay? It's at least worth trying other than wandering aimlessly about Water Country!"

Ino shook her head in disbelief as she stood up – Naruto haphazard bright attitude was nullifying the oppression right now, so it would probably be safe to go back. Besides, she had to agree that following an anonymous tip was better then nothing. Naruto always saw the best in people, so if Naruto trusted the source of the information, then who was she to argue?

* * *

After Naruto had left, Itachi sat by the river pondering her words; selfishness huh? He remembered Inochi saying something along the same lines. Shisui had told him not to think logically about things – had he meant just think what he wanted? That wasn't any easer if it was – he didn't know what he wanted any more.

Naruto told him not to try understanding the raging emotions flitting into his thoughts, but didn't that defeat the purpose? He thought about her most recent words and frowned. He didn't know how to put that into perspective around his own situation – true he worried about Ino when she tended to do stupid things, but he couldn't say that was being selfish. That was just being worried.

Why did Ino have be so much of a damn puzzle? He'd never had a problem understanding people before all this had occurred, but now he didn't even understand his own family when they tried to help him out! Nothing she did could be likened to anything he knew how to explain or understand or rationalise...

"_Logic and reason aren't going to help you with this one..."  
"I don't have to understand it to keep going because it's just what I want."  
"You can have some selfish moments too."_

Those words suddenly popped into his mind, and several things began to make sense; for one thing, he realised that Ino was the one person he failed to understand on a regular basis – not all the time, but often enough to cause irritation. He didn't think that was quite what his cousin had been trying to tell him, but he could equate the new knowledge to what Shisui had told him about Anko, and Naruto Sasuke.

The second thing that popped into his mind was that Naruto was right; he was trying so hard to rationalise thing that he hadn't stopped to think about whether he wanted to rationalise or not; Inochi and Naruto had both said the same thing as Shisui. Trying to rationalise the irrational was useless, but doing what he actually wanted was not. Now that he knew what he was actually thinking, the solution was incredibly simple.

Feeling much better than he had in days – no thanks to that sake his cousin had stuffed down his throat – he stood up and headed back to the camp site; with any luck this mess would be straightened out before the mission was over.

* * *

Sasuke lay slumped on the floor of his cell, his legs hooked over the edge of his bed as he stare up at the ceiling – he found all the carvings made by the previous inhabitants of it a somewhat entertaining way to pass the time. Currently his mind was wandering to Suigetsu and Naruto.

Suigetsu's role in all of this was crucial; if he didn't time it right, then he would be caught and then Orochimaru would know what was happening in water country – he really did hope he had got the locations right. If he hadn't, then this would all fall to pieces and he would end up as snake container version three and a half or whatever number he would be.

Being able to break out of his cell was a problem he hand yet found a solution to – he had been storing trickles of his chakra away for the past three years, but he didn't even have enough for a plain old clone or transformation, and if he stole too much from the supplies used in general bodily functions... he might end up killing himself before Naruto found him or before Orochimaru could.

He didn't know if Naruto had managed to translate his message, and even if she had, he hadn't given any specific locations. It had been all he could do to locate the bases he had been as prisoner in by country, let alone their exact alignment on the map. Even if they did translate it... they would be searching blindly through a completely unfamiliar country.

He knew the basic layout of Fire Country – all ninja did – but he had never left the borders of the country as a Genin. Those missions went to high ranking Chunin, Jonin, and the ANBU. He'd never been required to learn to landscapes of the other countries, and keeping his location quiet had been one the things Orochimaru had not failed at when he'd been given a little more freedom.

Naruto would probably kill him when he saw her again... but that wasn't what was bothering him about Naruto. What bothered him was how easily she had been using the Kyuubi chakra. She shouldn't have been so uncaring about it – he had seen the corpses she had left in her wake and frankly they worried him.

Naruto wasn't a killer by nature – she'd do it if that was the mission, but she always tried to solve things more peacefully if she could. That wasn't what he had been seeing back at the grass country base. What Ino had told him about her Sharingan worried him too.

Naruto's Sharingan had been the one thing that had never been properly explained; there was no reason she should have had it in the first place. Even if they had the same mother, it shouldn't have been passed on at all. He was certain that it was only passed on through the male line of the main family but...

When it had activated outside Ichiraku's, it had been fully activated. That had been unthinkable before, but then it had been revealed it had been activated on the day of her birth too. That was even more unthinkable – true, bloodlines activated a few days after or the day of birth, but it shouldn't have been anywhere near advanced enough to allow her to remember it.

Being born in almost literal fire or brimstone shouldn't have been so much of an influence either. Her memory had been strong long before activation, much too long. Everything about it was a complete mystery to them, and now... And now it was becoming more of a hindrance than a help, if what Ino had told him was in any way true.

Here he was stuck in the middle of Lightning Country, relying on Naruto to get him out of this mess when she probably needed his help more than ever. He had never felt so useless in his life, and there was nothing he could do but hope to god his plan worked out in his favour.

* * *

**_I've finally discovered why I like family stories so much - my father is complete ass, and I hate his guts._**

_**Reviews are more than welcome - I really would like some motivation guys. Motivation keeps me interested in writing! No pressure, but seriously, could someone give me feedback? Or not - whatever you want...  
**__**Hope you liked!**_

_**Nat.  
**__**xxx**_


	10. Act X: BiPolar's Northern Shindigs

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS  
A****CT II: SCENE X  
****~BI-POLAR'S NORTHERN SHINDIGS~**

**_

* * *

_**Ino felt like murdering something as they crossed the sea towards Orochimaru's island experiment lab, and not in the sense of plain irritation. She really wanted to kill something: images of tearing into throats and other grotesque images flooded her mind, and the closer they got to the hidden prison, the stronger they became.

Itachi kept giving her a concerned glance when he thought she wasn't looking – technically she wasn't, but she was still picking up the concern from him. It was a lot clearer now though; before it had been barley present, covered and muddled by other thoughts. She didn't know what to make of this development - just because he was concerned didn't necessarily mean...

His concern could easily be to do with the success of the mission and if her strange behaviour for the past few days would impede their progress. He was probably a little worried, but she always had trouble reading him. He was one of the few people she couldn't figure out with a few prods of chakra - the others were her father, Naruto, and the Hokage. She'd have a problem with an ANBU, but she'd be able to pick up something.

Just not with Itachi; that was why communication was so important with him. She had no idea what he was thinking; she could anticipate based on what she knew of him personally, but it wasn't the same as having the security her probing usually provided her with. There was no other option but to talk things out with him, but neither of them were doing particularly well with that action.

The sight of the island loomed eerily on the horizon; even the rocks looked gloomy and evil. She'd bet Tsunade's sake that the towering pillars of rock would collapse just to spite them when they arrived. Pushing more chakra into her feet she sped on after Naruto – she had taken off the moment the mountain came into sight, completely ignoring Itachi's protests once again.

Thankfully they both had better sense than to go in all guns blazing this time; the first disastrous mission to grass country, and the experience in the bunker in Sunagakure, had left them both more experienced and wary. They stopped in one of the ravines near the entrance to the hideout, waiting for their companions to catch up.

Hinata was the first to arrive, and her Byakugan was shown to be active by the distended veins either side of her face; she glanced around searching their surroundings as Itachi arrived with Sai, Shino and Kiba.

"It's quiet... I-I don't _think_ there are that many Oto ninjas... wait..."

Hinata frowned in concentration as Naruto peered around the edge of the ravine back towards the entrance; it didn't look like one but any common ninja would have been able to pick up on it – the seal on one of the rocks was an obvious clue, but the beaten indents in the rock nearby were a sign of human activity.

"There are more down below the ground... They're in cages – I think they're Orochimaru's experiments. There are more actual ninja too but... There's something funny about their chakra pathways... They look darker, like they're d-diseased or..."

"Contaminated?" Naruto suggested with a grim face.

Hinata nodded with a shudder; Ino presumed it was a reaction similar to the one she was having, except Hinata could see the horrible presence she was receiving directly into her mind. She wished she could turn her sensing off like Hinata, but she had grown up using it so much that deactivating it was... She didn't even know if she could.

At least she knew what all the negative emotion was coming from now; so many cursed seals in one place was bound to have a negative effect. Any sensory ninja who picked up on it would probably avoid something as sickening as this place, and Ino wouldn't blame them.

There was something else though – something far more prominent than the other negativity that surrounded her. She felt like she was millimetres away from remembering something important but... what? Before Ino could concentrate on the mystery any further, she was slammed to the ground by Itachi – there was a weird orange glowing... _thing_ surrounding the both of them as a hail of boulders rained down from the heavens.

She'd known there'd be a rock slide! Itachi remained crouched over the top of her, and gave her such a strong glare she let out a small squeak of fear; the hail of boulders faded, and the orange thing surrounding the both of them disappeared. Itachi pulled her up, maintaining the glare.

Glancing around she was stunned to find herself in the middle of an all out battle – Naruto was throwing her flame-smothered shuriken around like a mad thing, charging a few Rasengans for variety every now and again, Kakashi hurled kunai and shuriken all over the place, Shino's bugs we swarming all over the place, there was a large two headed Akamaru charging around, Sai slashed his short-sword through their flesh, and Hinata was blasting thin blades of chakra from her palms as a huge influx of curse riddled ninja came down upon them.

"Ino, what's wrong with you? You've been out of it for days! You were almost crushed because you weren't paying attention! If this is because of me then-"

Ino's eyes widened as Itachi yelled, and hurried to rectify the explanation he was suggesting; sure, it was a little distracting, but she would hardly let something like that get in the way of her job.

"No! No! It's not that! I just..."

Ino wasn't certain on how to explain what she was picking up without getting him even more worked up – she really should have said something before, but she didn't want to risk being sent back as she knew would have been suggested.

"I can feel all those cursed seals and... it's hard to keep them from having an influence..." she grumbled sheepishly, lodging a chakra-infused punch to the face of a man trying to creep up behind her.

Itachi glared again, but said nothing and turned back to the mass of ninjas that had attacked them; Ino felt a little worried then. Itachi was going to rip her a new one later on for withholding information like that. Then again, he probably would have sent her back to the village after that episode with Kiba, so she was glad she hadn't said anything.

She kicked another man in the gut, sending him crashing into one of the rock faces surrounding them; someone had to make sure Naruto didn't tear her self to bits physically here, and Kiba wasn't brilliant in the field – he panicked over the differences in lab and field techniques too much. They needed a decent combat medic, and while Kiba could transplant kidneys in an operating lab quite easily, combat situations were a different thing.

Her fears were justified when the skin of the Otogakure ninjas turned grey; keeping them off was suddenly a much greater task. She punched one, kicked another, but still had to doge the fireball sent by a third; things had been a bit more simple before hand. Medically she really found the cursed seals fascinating, but they were still disgusting.

Had Sasuke turned into something like one of these people when Naruto had been manipulated into fighting him? She couldn't tell; all she could sense from Naruto was anger. Lots of anger, and there were several things that it could be directed at. She swung a man with a reptilian tail into several of his companions by the gross appendage as Naruto let out a loud yell.

"Wind Release; Rasenshuriken!"

The almighty blast that followed was dizzying, blowing her from her feet and back towards the cliffs; she could see a similar reaction occurring to Hinata and Shino – Kiba was able to dig his Akamaru-combo claws into the earth, much to her irritation. Instead of the sharp impact she had expected, she crashed into something a bit softer instead.

Glancing out of the corner of her eye she started at the sight of Naruto's brother wincing at the impact she had had on him; how the hell did he move so fast? And why was he...? She would have been fine from a hit like that – a bit disoriented maybe but otherwise all right.

"What are you-?"

She was cut off by the press of his lips against her own; it was short, and quick, but it was there all the same. What? What did that mean? She couldn't tell! Was that like Sasuke's stupid confession to Naruto, or was it just a fling-sort-of-thing? She stared at him wide eyed in confusion. Damn it, why couldn't the man make two minuets of conversation?

"Don't think you're off the hook; I'm still mad at you for keeping quiet about the cursed seals," he informed her pointedly, movement prompting her to pull her way back to her feet.

This was confusing; this was very confusing! She was about to ask him what was going through his stupid impregnable head when a loud call from Kiba distracted her; turning to the direction the call had come from, she caught sight of Hinata helping him attend to Naruto completely busted arm.

Naruto, of course, had a smug grin on her face; Ino seriously considered strangling her team-mate and she stomped over to help Kiba begin the healing process, muttering curses all the while. Itachi followed her with another frown on his face, this time directed at Naruto.

"You shouldn't have rushed in like that Naruto; you know that technique isn't finished yet!" he admonished with a gentle whack to the back of her head.

He received a glare from the two blonde and the brunette boy, much to Kakashi's amusements.  
"Dude, you've got to _stop_ making more injuries!" Kiba complained, shooing Itachi away to create a little more room to work on the top of Naruto's forearm.

Ino was pointedly ignoring him – still muttering muffled curses under her breath – and focused on Naruto's hand and wrist. The damage that stupid technique had caused was beyond belief; if she had kept hold of it any longer she would have been up shit creek. To put it in perspective, her wrist and hand bone had been shattered almost completely beyond repair.

"If I hadn't used the Rasenshuriken we'd have been swamped by all those grey skinned creeps!" Naruto retorted hotly.

Ino finished knitting the bones in her hand back together enough to start wrapping her arm up in bandages as Kiba pulled out a sling from his own med-pack. Once her war wounds had been bundled up in bandages, Naruto hopped back onto her feet as fiat was a mere scratch, and marched towards the entrance.

Itachi looked to Ino and Kiba for help; they both glared at him and followed Naruto. Itachi began muttering curses of his own as he followed them, accompanied by the four quieter members of the two teams. Why was everyone mad at _him?_

_

* * *

_

"How do you control it?" Sasuke asked the girl in the cell opposite his own.

Fuu sat up on her bed and raised an eyebrow, just visible through the bars of her cage.  
"Control it? You mean the Beetle?" she asked.

Sasuke nodded.

"I can't – it'll help me out in tough spots, let me use its wings when I need to run away and things, but it _always_ tries to take over when it does. I know the fourth Mizukage could control his, but I heard he went kind of crazy during his reign, so maybe not...`I heard that the guy who keeps the Hachibi chained up can though - they're actually supposed to get along really well…"

Sasuke frowned; Fuu had told him she could use the wings of her demon – albeit on a smaller scale – so he had assumed that she could control her demon. He had been hoping to get some of idea to help Naruto when he was finally released. He knew they had met before, but his mind worked more analytically than Naruto's did; he might have been able to pick up something she could not.

It was at least better than sitting around moping because he felt useless.

"But you must have some control over it to be able to do that much-"  
"What do you mean you couldn't catch him? He is made of water! Just throw a few fireballs at him! He was part of a vital experimental procedure! If you can't find him before Orochimaru-sama arrives then you'll be taking his place!"

Sasuke couldn't help the smug grin that spread across his face as he heard one of the senior lackeys yelling at one of the underlings – there was no mistaking who they were talking about. Suigetsu had played his part with perfect timing. Orochimaru would be so distracted by the mess at his primary experimental base in wind country that he wouldn't notice any chaos at the one across the border in the middle of the water country ocean.

"What did you do? Why are you grinning like that? You're freaking me out!" Fuu demanded moving closer the bars of her cell looking both intrigued and alarmed.  
"Suigetsu is what happened, not me; weren't you listening?" he replied calmly, but still grinning to himself.

"Don't bullshit me! You planned this! I know it!" she yelled in frustration, glaring through the bars.

"Do you want to get out of here?" he asked.  
"Of course I do! Being sucked dry isn't my idea of fun!" she yelled, irritation amplifying by his ambiguity.

"Then relax – with any luck, Naruto will be breaking into the wind base right now; after they find Juugo it'll only be a matter of time before we can get out of this hell hole."

Fuu let out a howl of frustration and Sasuke continued to smirk.

* * *

"All right, remember to keep y our communicators turned on" Itachi reminded.

The three members of team eight nodded, and headed off down their own junction and down another corridor. Naruto, Ino, Kakashi, Sai, and Itachi took off down the remaining corridor on silent but swift feet. Ino made a face as they turned one of the disgustingly familiar corners; now that they were actually inside the building and past the protective seals, she was picking up a much stronger presence.

One that actually seemed to be giving of the most of the malignancy in the air; it came and went though, it wasn't at all permanent. It was definitely strong but oddly it wasn't as grotesque as the other cursed seals in the buildings. Ino shook the thought from her head when they turned down another corridor.

It really was like being back in grass country; Orochimaru didn't have a very imaginative decorator. Turning down another corridor, she decided to try concentrating on it – probably not one of her better ideas, but she would get a better impression of it that way. Ino stopped the blocks keeping it from fully entering her mind, and let the waves soak in.

It was completely overwhelming; the sheer scale of the blood lust was enough to make her grasp at the wall for support. She'd never felt so much rage or such a strong desire for blood from anyone but Naruto – and only when she was using the Kyuubi chakra. Were these really the thoughts of a human?

She knew that picking them up would be impossible if they didn't originate from a human, but for one person to have such clear barbarity in the most menial thoughts wasn't something she had come across before. She could barley hear Itachi and Naruto talking to her-

It was gone as quickly as it had appeared – she looked around to find worried glances being sent in her direction; Itachi looked like he was going to strangle her once they got out of this place.

"I'm fine; I just didn't expect it to be so strong when I concentrated... It keeps coming and going!"

Naruto stared at her blankly, then with irritation.  
"You mean as if the source of it is _bi-polar?_"

Ino felt like bashing her already achy head with a stick; she had been picking up on Juugo's thoughts all this time and she hadn't realised? Some clan heir she was! Her father would have her studying everything from the ground up again if he heard about this! She should have realised this sooner!

"Which way do we go?" Kakashi asked, jerking her from her self-depreciating thoughts.

Ino closed her eyes and concentrated again – it had been so overwhelming; she hadn't been given the chance to actually consider which direction the raging echoes in her mind had come from. He wasn't close by – that much she could tell immediately - but she wasn't sure of the exact location... His chakra must have been sealed, or in some sort of restraining cell like those the interrogation department used. For a general direction though...

"We need to go west; that's all I can pick up direction-wise"

Naruto glanced in the direction Ino had specified – there were two more corridors, each heading in the direction Ino had pointed out. She could send a few clones down them first, but the Rasenshuriken had taken a large chunk of chakra from her; she didn't know how many she could make without accidentally tapping into the Kyuubi's chakra. In any case, they didn't have enough time to wait for that; someone was bound to have had the common sense to go alert Orochimaru by now (where ever he was).

"Ino, Kakashi, take the right hand fork; Naruto, Sai, and I will take the right hand path; if the communicators go out of range, Sai or Ino can contact the others" Itachi instructed.

Naruto shot him a suspicious glance; had Ino been giving him mind-reading tips? She knew she had tried before, but her explanation had made little sense to him. Not that she could claim otherwise but...

Ino and Kakashi nodded, quickly darting down their own path; with no room for further discussion, Naruto took off after her brother down their own designated hallway, Sai closely following.

* * *

Ino carefully peered around another doorway; once again, there was nothing in the room behind it. Frustration welled up inside her and she slammed it closed. This was the third corridor she and Kakashi had searched since splitting away from Naruto and Itachi, and they were still no closer than before to Juugo.

She didn't dare let herself examine his mind in such detail again – she didn't know what would happen. The sheer numbers of cursed seals had been bothering her before she even realised she was also picking up things from Juugo; that had been before crossing the border, and it had already had her lashing out at Kiba.

At the same time however, they needed to find Juugo before someone could come and seriously try to stop them; they would be running blind for hours if she didn't try to find his exact location. Hoping she wouldn't regret it, she took a moment to pause in the hallway. Concentrating her chakra onto her telepathy she pushed it outwards.

Naruto and Itachi – seemingly arguing - Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Sai... she felt the sharp rugged and ferocious presence of Juugo's mind; bracing for any probable blasts of the malicious thoughts, she did her best to put his location into something she could aim for. All she could pick up was that he was still further west – she and Kakashi were closest at the moment.

Picking up the pace again, she made a gesture for Kakashi to follow her as she dashed down another hallway; she didn't really know what she was looking for, but she was certain they were making more progress than they had been beforehand. Feeling nothing in the rooms lining the hall, she took another turn down a duplicate hallway.

There was nothing till the end of the hallway – the guard at the doorway lunged towards them, and was immediately taken care of by Ino's fist. His head wasn't too badly damaged... at least she didn't think it was.

The doorway led to a flight of stairs, descending deeper into the earth; Ino palmed her face. Really, she should have expected this from a man with as little imagination in building design as Orochimaru. She pressed a switch on her communicator to open a frequency, but heard nothing but static.

She cursed; they were out of range. She could try linking up with Naruto, but if the communicators were out of range then there was no chance she would be able top by herself; she'd managed to do so with Itachi in the grass country base, but that one was smaller than this one.

After discussing and deciding that they could send a message some other way if they found something of note, she took to the steps three at a time, Kakashi following closely behind her. It was almost endless, but eventually they emerged in a series of very dimly lit hallways.

They were considerably creepier than the ones above – the doors had so many bolts and seals on them that Ino was reluctant to look inside them for fear of what they could possibly contain. Taking a deep breath, she opened her mind by a mere fraction; the force that rushed into her mind dragged her too her knees -cradling her head between her hands - screaming as it seared through her mind.

* * *

Naruto whirled around as the faint sound reached her ears; Itachi too stopped at the noise. There was no doubt that it had been Ino screaming, and the reaction was instantaneous – Itachi and Naruto both turned around and headed in the direction they had just come from.

It was safe to assume that, either Ino and Kakashi had found something and were in trouble, or were just in trouble. The communicators had gone out of range at least half an hour ago, and they had yet to find anything amongst the tunnels they had been searching.

Naruto was adamant that they needed to go deeper underground, but Itachi was reluctant to go anywhere near the lower floors; Naruto had snorted at this, certain that Orochimaru was going to be unimaginative enough to have the more dangerous and important experiments underground, but Itachi refused to budge.

Naruto couldn't help but be a little smug that Ino's voice had been muted; apparently Ino and Kakashi had reached the same conclusion she had. They came to a dead end, or to Itachi at least; the door in front of them led to the lower floors. Itachi took one glance at it, before turning around and heading for another corridor.

"Itachi! What if Ino's down there?" Naruto protested, chasing after him with Sai snapping at her heels.  
"I don't think Ino's in any danger; she's been reacting to the number of cursed seals here for days. If she really was in trouble, she wouldn't scream like that – it's more likely she concentrated on finding Juugo too much-"

"That's even worse!" Naruto interrupted.

She sometimes wondered if the god who had screwed brains into place had been feeling a little under the weather when he screwed down Itachi's; she didn't understand his logic at all! How was possible brain damage or craziness not worse than a couple of cuts and bruises?

"Only if she can't handle it, and if she's put up with it this long, I don't think a few hours will make any difference; we should keep searching up here."

Naruto flexed her fingers as she resisted the urge to strangle some sense into him; apparently Sai was just as frustrated if the awkward pat on the shoulder was anything to go by. With a howl of frustration as she tore at her bunches, she picked up the pace and followed him down another cloned hallway.

* * *

The door slammed open to emptiness. Ino gave the room a quick once over with her eyes, not daring to try looking for the boys consciousness after her last disastrous attempt. Seeing it was truly empty, she whiled from the doorway growling in frustration. On the other side of the dark corridor, Kakashi was busy searching an identical room.

"He's not in there!" she informed the grey haired Jonin behind her as she darted further down the corridor.  
"Nor this one" he replied despondently from the other side of the hallway.

The door was slammed shut and footsteps echoed down the dark hallways at a rapid pace. They were so close now! So close, he was somewhere in this underground labyrinth, Ino had confirmed. All that was left to find him. God, if this was another dead end she didn't know what she was going to do with Naruto…

Ino growled and skidded to a halt in front of another door.

* * *

Down another hallway another blonde slammed open another door: a glance with swirling red eyes that no one with an iota of chakra was inside it. Naruto swore and hastened down the halls once again, searching for the next door. Sai and Itachi mimicked her actions as they ran behind her.

"Where the hell is he?" she growled.

"Naruto calm down; we'll find him. Orochimaru wouldn't let the source wander around by his own free will," Itachi soothed, though the noticeable grit of his teeth showed his own frustration.

"Itachi-Sempai, I think we should consider going to search in the cells and labs for Orochimaru's experiments - we aren't getting anywhere up here; Kakashi-Sempai and Ino can't search all of the lower levels by themselves – we should try to contact team ten too" Sai stated in a business manner.

"Not until were certain Sai; those cells are… going through Orochimaru's criminal file back in Konoha was one of the few times I've been chilled to the bone. Some of the things we're likely to find there are nothing short of monstrous; we should make sure he's not up here before subjecting ourselves to..." he shuddered.

"You think I care about a little mutilation Itachi? If you do, I can show you some of the things I did when we were searching the grass base for Sasuke! Go ahead! You can use Tsukiyomi right now!" Naruto hissed, skidding to a halt.

The corridor veered in two different directions. Itachi turned his gaze onto Naruto with his Sharingan spinning angrily. Sai, having only recently even broached the real of psychology called emotion, was somewhat uncomfortable with the expressions on their faces.

"I'll just… go this way…" he informed them warily, taking off and dashing down the hallways at full speed.

Sai breathed a sigh of relief as he got away from his two disgruntled companions; though somewhat emotionally retarded, he knew better than to get in between a sibling fight; he'd had a few with shin, and he knew from that experience at least that getting involved would be most unwise.

Frankly, he thought Naruto was making a decent point about the whole mess, but once again, he didn't want to get involved. Taking care to keep to the shadows, he waited for two sound ninjas to dart down one of the hallways forming a crossroads with his own. Once their footsteps had disappeared, he quickly slipped down one of the other hallways.

He had doubled back to the stairwell they had discovered earlier; descending them, he emerged in a much darker set of corridors. The heavy reinforcements on the doors confirmed his suspicions that Naruto had been thinking more logically than her brother had. If he concentrated, he could hear the sound of doors opening and closing echoing through the halls.

That had to be Ino and Kakashi; he would contact them once they were back in range. After checking the rooms nearby, he turned down another corridor. He repeated the action again and again until he came to another set. He could hear crashes emerging from one of the cells at the end of the hallway.

He supposed it was the best lead he had at the moment, and pulled his short sword from its sheath ad he headed towards the sealed, heavy, reinforced steel door.

* * *

Naruto glared at her brother after slamming open yet another empty door.

"This is getting us nowhere and you know it!" she growled.  
"Naruto, we need to cover all the bases here-"

"Screw it! You know damn well that Juugo is down below us! Even Hinata had a suspicion he would be, and that was before we even got here! Stop being such a damn pacifist about this!"

The roared protest left her a little breathless, and she could feel her nails lengthening as her hold on the Kyuubi chakra waned a little. She did her best to hold it in check, but unless she vented on a wall or something soon, she'd have a job on keeping it under control.

"Naruto, you need to calm-"  
"What I need is to wring your damned neck! Why the hell are you being so adamant about this? You_ know_ that Juugo is underground! What the heck is _wrong_ with you?"

Itachi stopped and turned around, his eyes flashing red. Had Naruto not been in a less than genial demeanour herself, she probably would have stumbled under the gaze he sent her, but she just glared right back instead.

"I am being adamant because I don't know what Juugo is like; Kiba had a point when he said Sasuke didn't give us much information! Orochimaru isn't known for being particularly discreet with his experiments, and when you can't even handle your own memories, you can't blame me for avoiding the addition of another potential nightmare to the list!" he snapped.

Naruto stared at him; she was no longer glaring, but she didn't give the impression she was going to back down either. She kept an unwavering gaze on him for a few moments before deliberately walking past him.

"Did you forget what I told you Itachi? I. Don't. Care!"

She moved quickly down the corridor; opening one door, she was greeted with a flight of stairs. Before he could protests, the sound of her footsteps rose from the dark depths below. Regaining his wits, he quickly followed her down the dark twisting decent, feet slapping on the wet stone steps carved into the rock.

Naruto was already scribbling away on one door with an ink brush, trying to remove the seals – the style of writing was completely different to the ones she had been tearing her hair out over recently. No matter which way she tried decoding and de-keying the scrolls found by Ino in Sunagakure, she couldn't decipher the things.

Before he could strike up the discussion again, the blast of an explosion echoed with loud resonation through the darkened halls.

* * *

There was an explosion, and it echoed and rumbled throughout the entire underground maze. Ino froze as the hallway they had just entered was filled with dust and mortar.

Sai was thrown from the room, landing in a battered heap on the new piles of debris. In barley moments, she had closed the distanced and pulled him out of the way, her hands already using the green glow surrounding them to mend the fracture in his ribs.

"What the hell is going on?" she demanded, moving to a bleeding gash on his arm.  
"He's up there!" Sai pointed in the direction he was facing.

Turning to see for herself, Ino could clearly see the pile of rubble that had fallen from the roof - the light came from a small hole in the roof where the rubble had originated. Sitting atop the rubble was the boy they had spent the last two months crashing through Orochimaru's bases in search of.

Giving a tentative push from her frontal lobe with her chakra she tried to get a shot glimpse of his consciousness. The pain that it sent through her forehead was reminiscent of her prototype brain boost juice - it was like listening to the static on a coms-device, only amplifies and in the form of rampant thoughts instead of crackling fuzzy sound.

* * *

In another hallway the interaction had not gone unnoticed by the second Jonin; he didn't even bother to restrain the girl beside him and ran with just as much speed, though with a comparatively less vocal demeanour.

Their gaze followed that of their squad-mates (as five people could hardly be considered a three-man-team) and dozens of responses flooded their expressions, the younger of the two the more expressive than any of her squad-mates so far.

"Thank god for that! We finally got the right place!"

Naruto jumped up and down eagerly at the sight of the orange haired boy. Ino gave the half human, half grey monstrous-looking boy a wary glance.

"He fits the description" Sai said in what he hoped was a placating tone; to Ino, it sounded more patronizing, and he received an elbow to the gut for his attempt.

"I know it's Juugo Sai! I was just expressing the shock! I mean - the dude is grey! _Grey!_" she raged at her team-mate.  
"All right, now that we've found him, there only one thing left to-"

Naruto was cut off by a swipe by the boy's malformed monstrous arm as it swung to towards her. She ducked to avoid the blow and pulled out one of her kunai knives. Ino reacted by slamming her fist into the already vandalised ground, causing the boy to loose his footing.

"Oi, carrot-head, you listen to a girl when she's talking! Didn't your mother teach you manners?" Ino growled, waving her chakra infused fists for emphasis, barley missing the faces of Yamato and Sai.

"Ino, stop waving your hands around!" Itachi warned with an exasperated sigh before Juugo lunged towards them once again.

* * *

**_I've been having the strange thought recently that Adam Lambert looks kind of like a human Sasuke; I thought so when I watched the 'Whattaya Want From Me' video (yes, I know its been out for forever and a day - I don't really get out much). I loooove the album! I love 'Time for Miracles' and 'If I Had You' and 'Voodoo'. I like Lady Gag-gag too. :P_**

**_Before you all freak out, I mean when he wears normal-people clothes, like in the video; Who cried at the last naruto chapter? I personally smell NaruSaku from Kushina, since Naruto called Hinata weird before (I like Hinata, but not with Naruto). Sakura just has a freakish temper - like Kushina, no?_**

**_Also, One Manga is shutting down! That sucks ass! I can't press one of the arrow keys to change page on Manga Fox! Really, I found that out after talking to my dad (Le Gasp! He contacted Earth!), and my day was just completely shot after that... I ended up talking to a sparrow like a shrink (not actually joking here)._**

**_Hope you liked the chapter, and please, please, please, please, pleeeeeaaaase review!_**

**_Nat._**  
**_xxx_**


	11. Act XI: Deteriorating Developments

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

**

* * *

**

**ACT II: SCENE XI  
~ DETERIORATING DEVELOPMENTS ~**

**

* * *

**

Deidara saw his partner waiting with his target slung over his shoulder at the edge of the lake; steam still issued from the man's armour, indicating that his capture had not long since passed. Deidara's gut churned thinking of the man's fate, but Kisame seemed none the wiser as he swooped down on the clay bird he had been using to pull the three-tailed turtle.

The man on Kisame's shoulder appeared to be an Iwagakure ninja covered in red armour with only closed eyes visible. Han, he briefly remembered his name was. He couldn't help but be glad that his own capture hadn't involved an actual person – he didn't know if he could have managed to capture the man without arousing suspicion.

"What took you so long? You should have been the first back with an easy catch like the tree-tail!" Kisame complained, tossing the man from his shoulder to the tip of Samehada's blade.

"Shut up fish-head; just because it's stupid doesn't mean it doesn't pack a punch" he grumbled in reply.

Kisame shot him a suspicious look, but didn't press any more questions; he couldn't help but feel uneasy with the situation now, ever since it had emerged that Naruto was his sister the Akatsuki had been unusually watchful of his actions. He didn't know where they had found that out, but he was certain it was Orochimaru.

Unless Madara was behind it; he wouldn't put it past that man to keep him around just to make sure he couldn't mess up his plans. There was no chance that Madara was unaware of their relation, and that of Sasuke and Itachi. He didn't know what the man was planning, even after almost sixteen years of working investigating him.

He did have a good idea of how the man's mind worked in spite of that; he never took risks. It was probably because of that reason that he put up with Orochimaru's crazed antics without complaint. Orochimaru was not one to be on the bad side of – he could be defeated, but the problem would be catching him. It also removed an obvious obstacle in the form of Sasuke.

There brought him to another worry beside Naruto; Sasuke was running out of time, quickly. He had pointed Naruto in the right direction, but that wasn't a guarantee that Sasuke would be out of Orochimaru's clutches before the deadline was up. He'd already seen copious amounts of blood frothing in the corners of the insane man's mouth.

The solution was obvious, help Sasuke himself; however, if he did that he would have to completely surrender to the suspicions forming around him, and that would be nothing short of insanity at the moment; he was a strong ninja – he would never have been considered for the Akatsuki if he wasn't – but to take on a group of eight S-Class renegades by himself? That would be suicide, and would in no way help Naruto.

Flipping the coin again, this was Itachi's little brother, his step brother, and Naruto's full brother (well, half). He couldn't jut let the guy be turned into Orochimaru 2.0. Not only would letting Orochimaru gain a pure-line Sharingan be a disaster, he'd never forgive himself for it – it would be like extracting the Kyuubi from Naruto.

He would have to crawl up either the rock or the hard place at one point, and decision time was rapidly nearing.

* * *

Ino quickly swerved out of the way as Juugo's grey fist slammed towards her. Failing his first attack, he turned on Naruto instead; Naruto ducked out of the way, rolling beneath him as he sailed through the air to land with a large heavy crash in the spot she had previously been standing in.

She watched as Juugo turned back to Ino with large clawed grey hands; Ino gathered her chakra and sent the boy crashing into the wall with a well aimed kick; team eight arrived just inside the hole created by the original blast just as Juugo's impact proved too much for another section of the wall.

"The hell?" Kiba yelped, dodging a blow as the crazed boy took a lunge at him with his claws.

Hinata watched him carefully, examining his chakra pathways and flow as Ino gave the wall a scrutinising gaze; Naruto followed Kiba's lead and pushed some chakra into her muscles and jumped on his back, trying to slam him to the ground with Kiba's aid. She was thrown off and caught by Sai before hitting the wall.

"I thought you said he was bi-polar, not a miniature demon!" Kiba protested, sending a quick look to Naruto to show he meant no offence.  
"I did! I didn't think he would be this bad" Naruto replied, pulling herself off the ground before turning around to help Sai up.

Itachi had been standing back and giving the boy an analytical gaze for some time; he had no discernible style that he could see, he just lunged at whoever was unlucky enough to be in his field of vision at the time. Even Naruto, unpredictable as her own style was, was being pushed to even keep up with him.

"Hinata, what can you see?" he asked the pale-eyed girl.  
"His chakra itself is diseased; there's an abnormal amount in his mind too, that's probably what's made him so... so impulsive" Hinata replied, deactivating her bloodline.

That made sense, but how on earth had Sasuke been able to talk with this boy coherently? He couldn't imagine Orochimaru sharing the information with his prisoners unless they had actual interaction with him, so Sasuke must have been able to communicate with him in some fashion...

"What's this on the wall? There's a gouge in it..."

Ino's voice drew Naruto's attention to the wall she mentioned; dodging a blow from a scythed arm from Juugo, she crossed the room to trace the gouge. It was fairly medium sized, big enough to be noticed, but not so big to be obtrusive. Tracing the dots on the outer lines, her brows frowned in confusion.

"Naruto, is that what I think it is?" Ino asked, mirroring Naruto's frown.

Naruto nodded, her mind racing a mile a minuet; why was there a Sharingan carved into the wall? Had Sasuke drawn it or Juugo? No, there were seals keys to specific chakra releases on the door. Only brute force could have gotten past them, but Sasuke didn't have use of his chakra. She couldn't imagine Orochimaru or one of his cronies scratching it into the rock, so that only left...

"Ino, think you can hold him down lone enough for Itachi to get inside his head?" Naruto asked quietly, watching as Kiba and Itachi both twisted and lunged that the manic boy, attempting to knock him out or otherwise calm him down.

Ino gave an alarmed look at the grey boy, then Naruto before giving a hesitant nod. She gathered her chakra into most of her muscles, boosting them with extra strength and lunged into the fray. After several near misses she succeeded in pinning the snarling boy to the ground, with some help from Kiba and Sai.

"Hinata, give him one of those chakra stabs!" Ino instructed, holding him at an angle that would let Hinata cut of movement to his arms and legs for a short while.

Hinata did as instructed, and the movement in Juugo's legs and arms seemed to die, leaving only his snarling, screaming head in motion. Ino held his head steady before looking up at Itachi.

"Do what you did with Naruto at the bridge!"

Itachi nodded and the twisted version of his Sharingan swirled into his vision; Ino moved over to give him a better look at Juugo's eyes, keeping his head steady. Juugo snapped his eyes shut, and Naruto promptly forced his eyelids back open. Blood began to trickle like tears form both of Itachi's eyes as he stared into Juugo's diseased ones.

It lasted longer than the moment it had taken for Naruto, Ino noted, and guessed this was because the problem was actually part of Juugo; the control Kabuto held over her was an addition, and even if he said it was part of her genetics now, it was still an addition in the same way Sasuke's cursed seal was.

Juugo though, he was the source of it all; a nasty though that seared through her mind was that if Orochimaru hadn't taken an interest in Juugo, Sasuke would never have been targeted in the way he had but she shook it aside. Orochimaru would have come hunting the Sharingan cursed boy or not, and given the tiny numbers of Uchihas who actually had the Sharingan now, it was inevitable that Sasuke became a target.

Itachi fell backwards, coughing and gasping for breath, generating immediate fretting from Ino and Naruto watched as Juugo's resistance faded; the grey on his skin began to turn opaque and skin coloured. The whites of his eyes returned from black and the yellow turned to a deep amber-orange. He seemed a little disorientated at first, but seemed to regain his bearings almost as if he knew them.

He stared at her for a few moments before smiling in a surprising greeting.  
"Nice to finally meet you Naruto."

He nodded politely towards Ino and Itachi, seemingly ignorant of the stunned expression on their faces.

* * *

Sasuke could already tell it was Orochimaru by the prickling sensation of a furious chakra user when the door to the dungeons slammed open, crashing into the wall from the rage-filled encounter with the insane man's hand. The stamp of furious feet echoed down the hallways, and even Fuu – one of the few to be exposed to true demonic chakra for most of her life – shrunk back at the slithering sensation creeping through the air as the man drew closer.

Sasuke remained uncaring by first glance – laid back on the bed, one knee propped up and his arms behind his head as the infuriated Sannin drew to a halt in front of his cell, two forms of madness exuding from him. His smile was as calm as it ever had been; it was a sick reminder that almost noting truly fazed the crazy man, and no method was beyond his comprehension if it served his purposes.

"I'm curious Sasuke, when did you tell the Kyuubi wench of your scheme? Before or after she destroyed my base?"

He asked as the question like one would ask about the weather, but for the first time since their first encounter in the forest of death Sasuke felt fear in the presence of the man; not a single line of anger marred his face, but the choking, twisting, feel of his chakra was truly like a venomous snake. He felt suffocate by the crawling feeling the calm anger sent over him.

"You should have chosen you confederates more carefully Sasuke; successful or not, Suigetsu will still be paying the consequences for your actions, and it will soon all be for nothing"

Sasuke was unashamed to admit he felt his feet take an unconscious step backwards as the force of malice in the air pressed down on him in reaction to its master's rage; Suigetsu had been caught? He had been certain the Kirigakure ninja would have made his way out...

But what did he mean all for nothing? Did he mean Juugo was dead?

No; he could be certain that, with the man's festering rage, Naruto had escaped with Juugo before Orochimaru could get to the base in water country; that was certain. Orochimaru wasn't really into acting, he made his emotions very plain when they were fierce enough, and right now he was fiercely livid.

"Mark my words, your eyes will be mine before the month is out!"

His eyes? Did he mean...? Sasuke felt his blood chill as his back connected with the wall – was it so close already? It would take at least a week for Naruto to get Juugo back to Konoha, and then the time on purifying his DNA...

That would take at least two weeks, and even if Juugo could provide them with his new location, it would take much longer to reach Lightning Country than the base they had just broken into...

He'd been so focused on timing he'd forgotten the most important thing; distance. Sickness crept into his stomach as the man stalked back to the upper levels of the hideout, and his legs gave way as panic began to spread. Sliding down the wall to the floor, he couldn't shake the notion that all his plans – unravelling before his eyes – had all been for nought.

* * *

"I think we can stop here – were far enough away that we won't be found" Kakashi called out, calling the party to a stop with the wave of a hand.

Kiba and Shino stopped gratefully, carefully depositing the unconscious orange haired boy on the ground before pulling out what they would need for the night; Juugo had insisted he be rendered unconscious for their own safety. Itachi had assured him he could control his urges, but he had refused point blank, and asked Hinata to knock him unconscious until he could be locked up again.

Naruto had been completely surprised when he greeted her by name – she hadn't expected that at all; she hadn't thought Sasuke would have mentioned her unless he couldn't avoid it in that sort of environment.

None of the people she had mutilated at the grass base seemed to be totally clear on the matter; she wasn't offended by that, Sasuke was obviously trying to avoid another incident like those with Kabuto, but that meant Juugo had surprised her with the knowledge. Sasuke must really trust the guy to have told him.

She cast her eyes towards Itachi and Ino; Itachi had rolled out his sleeping mat beside hers and Ino looked like she didn't know whether to faint into his arms or rip them off. Something bothered her about the reaction he'd had after using the Mangekyo. She hadn't noticed much earlier, but now that she thought about it side effects like that weren't normal.

Unless Itachi had been injured and she hadn't noticed?

She watched as he and Ino headed off down the edge of the river they were camped beside, presumably to straighten things out. Maybe Ino would have a better idea – she was the medic, and Naruto could easily be over-reacting. She didn't use her Sharingan unless she was really struggling, so she wasn't as familiar with its workings as Sasuke or Itachi.

Maybe it did have a few side effects that she just wasn't aware of?

Shaking the dreary thoughts from her mind she gave Ino – who had looked over her shoulder – a thumbs up sign; it was well past time those two sorted things out, and the sooner the better. She had a horrible feeling they were running out of time, and she didn't want to stop for the night.

_...What took you so long to figure that out? You never had the time in the first place..._

She whirled around in alarm; she glanced at Kiba and Shino to see if they had spoken – they were busy unrolling their sleeping bags. Hinata was building up a camp fire with Kakashi, and Sai sat on a rock, keeping an eye on Juugo's slumbering body.

She must have imagined it. She had to have imagined it. Something about that voice sounded horribly familiar, but no matter how much she wracked her perfect memory, it continued to elude her.

She had to have imagined it.

* * *

Ino watched Itachi with a curious, but careful gaze as he walked a few steps ahead of her; he seemed stressed, like he had been when he was working in the ANBU, running the clan, and the police department all at the same time – overworked. Was it lingering effects from earlier? She wasn't sure – fighting Juugo's mind could have just put enough stress on his own to short circuit a few things, but then again it could be something else entirely.

She knew Itachi best, much more than Naruto did in a way, and she knew that even if she asked, he would lie if he thought it was something serious, something that would cause worry. He was a self-sacrificing idiot; she'd have to find out herself, but trying to outwit a person she couldn't read without a great deal of concentration... It was no small task, especially because it was Itachi.

He stopped at one of the dirty-brown sandbanks, staring into the shallow, murky river water; they were close to Wind Country now; with three more days of travelling, they could be back in Konoha if the whether held and they kept their pace, and that would be a serious boon. She knew Naruto and Itachi were thinking the same thing; they were close to their time-limit.

"Ino, I apologize for... I'm sorry for handling things so badly"

Ino was jerked out of her musings by the sound of his voice; apologize? For what? Oh, right, the sex-thing. Ino would never admit it even to Naruto that she was a little stumped by that; why did he want to apologize for that? The sex wasn't the problem; it was anything but the problem! Communication was the problem, and while he seemed to be making a decent attempt at communicating now, he wasn't really doing so very clearly...

"I'm not sure what you mean... Well, I do, but I don't..." she replied, feeling even more confused with her own words; she was lucky Itachi seemed to understand them.

He sat down on one of the rocks jutting out into the sand, still staring into the water contemplatively.

"I may have been persistent that you didn't leave the house, but I cold have done that in a much better way than I did, and for that I apologize," he reiterated, turning to look her in the eye.

She could feel a certain blood-pumping organ rapidly increasing below her ribcage as he cast the same gaze over her he had been giving the muddy river water only moments ago. For the love of fire, why was she so nervous? She felt completely exposed, which was stupid since she was wearing clothes.

A horrible little voice that sounded suspiciously like Naruto's reminded her that that was a null and void thought now, and she felt the traitorous organ up its pace once again.

Hoping to keep her nerves down, she took up interest in one of the plants growing by the waters edge; she focused her mind onto its uses medically and fatally. It was a beautiful plant – deep fuchsia-purple tubes dotted with white speckles on their inner side on a tall green stand. One of her favourites; Dead Man's Bell's.

If used properly, it could be used to kick start a failing heart with the right companion herbs and knowledge. On the other side of the same coin, it could cause bradycardia, tachycardia, heart block, convulsions, and if the dose was strong enough... Cerebral disturbances, delirium, headaches, hallucination, and death along with any number of other nasty side effects.

A glance towards Itachi revealed he was still watching her; this really was very uncomfortable, and the point was to talk! Giving the plant a forlorn look she took a seat on the rock he was seated on – it was a large flat thing, easily enough to accommodate them both and probably Akamaru if necessary.

"You don't have to apologize for that; you'd have stopped if I really wanted you to, right? We both could have handled that better."

A nod was the only sign he had accepted her words and dropped what he had been stewing over. He gave her another contemplative glance before running an irritated hand through his fringe, and the glance turned into an accusing one.

"You are the most nonsensical, confusing, incomprehensible person I have ever met," he stated bluntly.

Ino didn't know to take that as a compliment or not; she could retort that he was just as bad!

"I think that was the problem, the main one at any rate – you are completely illogical when logic is needed most!" he muttered.

Once again Ino was confused; was this a good thing or a bad thing?

"What kind of Genin tries to posses Orochimaru of all people? You insist on working yourself half to death when the work itself is already dead! It makes no sense to me at all! And yet you persist in acting reckless, when you know perfectly well how stupid and illogical it is!"

He shook his head in distaste, but for someone so mad, he didn't really look all that mad; there was a ghost of a smile on his face that only Naruto or Sasuke would have been able to pick up on.

"...And even before that, I never understood what was going through your head; I presumed it was clan inheritance of some kind, but lately it seems to have been my own head making you all the more confusing. I couldn't figure out why your actions bothered me so much..."

Now this was what Ino mean when she said communication! This she could work with, and analyse, and with any luck translate into something understandable. He turned his gaze to another calm one, and she was completely lost on two levels by the dark charcoals staring back at her.

"...I think I know why now – Naruto and Shisui had to beat their heads to the ground explaining it, but I think I finally understand the reason; I don't understand you at all sometimes."

Ino didn't bother to hide the confused furrow of her brows; what kind of reason was that? They were back to the mixed message mess now, weren't they? Or could she just not keep up with his train of thought?

"I understand everyone else perfectly, or at least enough for me to be comfortable with, but you? You are so illogical that trying to reason with things logically just made things worse. I've never had to do anything illogical in my actions, but you seem to drag them out of me whether I give consent or not"

In still felt confused, although a good confused; what on earth was he babbling about? Why couldn't he just come out and tell her if he wanted to try things with her or not? God, why were Uchihas such emotional retards? Her she was stewing her mind to mush over this, while he spouted cryptic crap!

"Well, you're not the only one confused; what's all that supposed to mean?" she asked, crossing her arms and glaring through her fringe a little irritably.

Gah! Why couldn't she pick things up from him? She could use a light probing sure, but that was like cheating. Besides, Ibiki seemed to have taught him how to keep them from being picked up. It was so confusing.

She knew his personality, his likes his dislikes inside out, and upside down, but he still managed to keep her confused, keep her on her toes. If she didn't enjoy it so much, she'd hate him for it.

He pulled his fingers through the strands of ink not caught at the back of his neck in frustration; Itachi briefly remembered watching Sasuke going through the same problem three years ago. His solution seemed to have worked well enough when he couldn't explain himself; there was no reason it wouldn't work for him.

Following the train of thought, he placed one hand at the nape of Ino's neck and pulled her a smidgen closer as he pressed their lips together. It was a vast improvement on his last attempt, frankly. No clouded emotions, no haste to get in the way by ruining the moment and making it all the more confusing. Just a plain old kiss – well, not a plain old one, but a normal one.

He felt Ino kiss back for a few brief seconds before she pulled away and slammed her fist into his gut; she must have used some chakra because he fell backwards off the rock onto the sand-bank. He didn't have to ask for an explanation, because she was yelling it out probably loud enough for the rest of the team to hear.

"What in the hell is wrong with you Uchihas? That was Sasuke all over again! For the love of fire, why are you all such emotional retards? The only normal one of you lot is Shisui, and he married _Anko!_ You're all _nuts!_ Absolutely freaking off your damn rockers-"

Ino was cut of by her own yelp of surprise when a fire ball came hurtling towards them from one of the branches in the trees above the river bank. Ino pulled herself up off the ground, turning to glare at the person who had cut her off mid-rant.

Standing on one of the branches was a man in disgustingly familiar orange mask.

* * *

"Has there been any word from Jiraiya?"

Tsunade looked to the old council-woman with a frown of her own gracing her features; apparently she wasn't the only one concerned about the lack of information from her team-mate. It was unusual for Koharu to be worried about her brother in any shape or form; the fact she was asking her – one of her least favourite people – for information was very telling.

"No; he hasn't even sent a messenger toad since he left the village" she replied.

This wasn't normal; Jiraiya always sent word, even if it was just to Koharu to annoy her – the woman was a neat freak, and hated slimy toads on her pristine floors. But nothing? A horrible dread was building up in her gut, growing heavier with every day that passed without word from her team-mate. Her thoughts were dragged away from the matter when the woman changed the topic.

"Naruto's movements should be restricted on return to the village; Itachi is a strong ninja, be we cant afford to let the Kyuubi fall into the hands of the Akatsuki – our scouts in water country have reported that Deidara succeeded in capturing the three tails a few days ago. Without Jiraiya around that girl-"

Tsunade wasn't known for her patience, but she had tried for a long time to be reasonable on the matter of Naruto, but she was sick and tired of dancing the neutral tune with the old hag.

"For gods sake you old bat, _'that girl'_ is your granddaughter whether you like it or not; at least try to treat your own flesh and blood with a little respect!" she snapped, shocking the old woman, and drawing a surprisingly relieved one from Homura – not much of one though.

"Tsunade we can't afford to be hasty here; until we can be certain of Naruto's security this is the best option to take!"

Tsunade was about to bash the man's face in when one of her ANBU flickered into existence, one knee bent to the floor. Shooting a glare that promised the two elders the discussion was not over, she gave them a brief reprieve.

"State your business."  
"Several of Jiraiya's toad-summons have arrived at the village gate; Fukusaku and Gamabunta are amongst them" the ANBU replied.

Well finally, something. The mention of Fukusaku was enough to set off numerous warnings in her mind, but at least it was something. Crossing the room she wrenched open the door, closely followed by the two councillors as she headed down the stairs to the main street below.

Had she been more vigilant and less impatient for news of Jiraiya, she might have paid more attention to the fact that the ANBU did not follow her, but she did not. The masked man waited until the sound of the three sets of footsteps had disappeared from his hearing, before crossing towards the desk.

Breaking into one of the drawers, he selected one folder containing the information on the Uchiha district – more specifically, its defences and the list of registered ninja – before replacing the drawer as it had been, and disappearing in a swirl of air and leaves.

* * *

Naruto's ears pricked up at the familiar sound of Ino's destructive fists.

"Shino, Hinata, take Juugo and head for the village with Kakashi-sensei! We can't let Orochimaru get his hands on him again!" she instructed as she headed downstream with Sai and Kiba, who had also reacted to the sound.

Whether they protested or not was not on her mind as she caught up to Ino and Itachi; the sight of Madara was much more pressing – it seemed that Itachi was trying to keep the man in one spot with well aimed kicks and punches of his own so Ino could land a good hit on him.

Blood trailed down one cheek, and the ground was scarred by several smoking black marks, but it seemed he was having the same problem Sasuke had encountered when the man had first walked into their lives, during the invasion.

Everything seemed to pass through him; she unhitched her shuriken from her back, pushing her wind natured chakra into it as she did so. It looked like a loosing battle but she had to try something; she could hardly let her deranged ancestor walk all over them without putting up one heck of a fight.

With a final infusion of chakra to the bladed weapon, she hurled the shuriken in the direction of the masked man; as expected, it sailed through him without a hint of resistance. Snatching it from the air as it whirled back towards her, she flung it again, making the hand signs for a fireball.

"Duck!" she yelled out loudly.

Once Itachi and Ino had removed themselves from the direct firing line, she let loose an enormous fireball that rivalled Itachi's; it was times like these that having such a large amount of chakra was a blessing. Not to say it didn't leave her a little winded; she had been hoping that more chakra than normal in the fireball would smother the use of his own, keeping him from using whatever made him intangible.

Looking up for a brief moment, her vision was sucked into a pair of swirling red mutated Sharingan; she snarled and stilled her chakra in her veins, trying to fight the false image of a black and red Kyuubi-less boiler room in front of her. Something moved in the corner of her vision, and she snapped her lids over her eyes; if she couldn't see it, it would be easier to fight out of.

"You're weak!"

Against her own advice, her eyes crept open to see Sasuke – the last person she wanted to see in this creepy illusion - as she had seen him barley two months ago glaring back at her.

* * *

"Naruto!"

Ino skidded just in time to catch Naruto before her dazed body hit the ground; a quick spurge of chakra into her body failed to provoke her from Madara's illusion – she hadn't really been expecting it to, but there was always room for hope. Ino gave their surroundings a quick scan; Kiba, Sai and Itachi were busy holding off Madara, so she was safe enough to get Naruto out of the way and try jolting her out of the illusion the old fashioned way – with a decent probe inside her head.

Slinging one of Naruto's arms over her shoulders, she headed off into the trees themselves, away from the riverbank where all the action was taking place; with any luck she could catch up with Kakashi and the others.

"Ino!"

Jolting back to reality, Ino swore to herself as she dodged a glowing red hand seemingly appearing from mid air; she dodged another and another as the clone – or was it the real one? – drove fiery red hands towards her. Going by the smoking patches of the earth, the man was mixing his tangibility and a fire technique; it was not something to get on the wrong side of, and with Naruto hanging over her shoulder, dodging was not easy.

Using a stumble from him to her advantage, she gained some distance from him, enough to reach the line of trees. She hoisted Naruto onto her back, trying to make navigation easier; the jostle took her attention away from her steps, and her feet entangled themselves in themselves – or was it Naruto's? - And she crashed to the earth.

She could see him catching up with her, hands glowing as she pulled herself to her feet; she tugged Naruto's arm back around her neck once again, trying re re-establish her hold on her as the crazed man loomed down upon her, sparks and smoulders emitting from his hands.

She didn't see him move, but instead of landing in her own, the snarling, angry, dragon-red appendages lodged themselves inside Itachi's chest. Instead of passing through his body, the hands remained inside him, and the nauseating smell of burning flesh and gut could be smelt even through the barrier of skin.

* * *

Tsunade slumped over her desk, doing her utmost to remain her composure with the news Fukusaku had just relayed to her. Of both her team-mates, Jiraiya she had been certain would never be killed, would never leave so abruptly like Orochimaru had.

Ever since his parents died and he became so obsessed with reincarnation, she'd had a feeling Orochimaru wouldn't hang around forever, but Jiraiya? He was too stubborn to die. And as for leaving, she had problems getting him to leave when he was in the village! It was an incomprehensible notion days ago, but now it was a stark reality.

Jiraiya was dead, and he probably wouldn't even get a proper burial; the toads had promised to try and reclaim his body, but there was little chance of finding it before the Akatsuki did. Akatsuki were unlikely to leave any evidence behind them. Fukusaku had mentioned teaching Naruto sage arts too...

Naruto; this would crush her. As if the mess with Sasuke wasn't bad enough, but loosing Jiraiya for good as well? God, if that wasn't the kunai that would break her back, what would be? Her musings were thrown to one side when the door to her office was thrown open with a bang; a dusty, singed, Shisui stumbled through the doorway with a frantic look in his eyes she had though he even knew of – he was always so relaxed.

"Tsunade-sama! You need to see this!" he blurted, before heading to a passage behind her bookcase leading to the roof of the building.

Following the head of the police division up the hidden stairs to the roof, she emerged on the flat pale tiled – the village was beautiful in the orange glow bathing it. It was a pity sundown ha passed some hours ago; on the edge of the village, where the Uchiha district lay, great red-orange flames licked into the air.

"Shisui..." she grated in a warning tone, demanding explanation.

"I don't know how it happened Tsunade-sama! I was coming back from the police department when I saw it; all I know is that there a barrier surrounding the district preventing us from entering! If Jiraiya-sama or Naruto were here we might stand a chance, but none of the ninjas in the police force can break that barrier quickly enough!"

Tsunade had a sudden flashback to the ANBU who had entered her office with the news of the toads' arrival; that heavy feeling in her gut doubled as she descended the stairs two at a time, heading back to her desk. Tearing out one of the drawers, she flicked frantically though the folders; the folder containing the Uchiha defences was missing!

Danzou! This had to be Danzou's doing, but what did he stand to gain from this? If there were enough Sharingan to go around, she'd guess that he planned on giving himself a transplant for his blank socket, but why attack the whole clan for just one eye? It made no sense!

A scrap of paper caught her eye, and she gave it a loathing gaze; there were four numbers, and one bonus on the lottery ticket. She had already had two disasters of her own; she prayed in the name of fire that the remaining three winning numbers were not representing disasters for team seven.

* * *

_**Ok, the five numbers are as follows; Sasuke's chat with Orochimaru, Madara's first attack on Naruto, Jiraiya's death news arrival, Madara's second attack on Ino/Itachi , and the destruction on the Uchiha compound. Just so were clear, and yes I know I have already said Madara is a rotting corpse via Inoro; that was deliberate since Ino and co. are unaware of this news. **_

_**That is also very important later on; please remember it. Hope you liked the chapter - It's getting to the main part now, Took forever, but I like development in my stories, and cryptic. I don't know if anyone notice that I'm trying to be cryptic, but I am (I don't think I'm doing it very well, but I am trying). Anyone who wants to guess at Madara's identity feel free to do so. I'll give you a cookie if you get it right.**_

_**Hope you liked this chapter - If you did, please leave some feedback, and all that jazz...  
**__**Nat.  
**__**xxx **_


	12. Act XII: Love Me Dead

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

**

* * *

**

**ACT II: SCENE XII  
~ LOVE ME DEAD ~**

**

* * *

**

Ino stood frozen in horror as Madara pulled his had from Itachi's chest, completely unmarked even from the blood it had been mixing around as it charred Itachi's insides. Before she could even recognise what had happened, Itachi had crumpled to the ground, Sai had once again taken up the attempt to slow the man down, and Kiba's hands were scanning Itachi's skin, analysing the internal damage.

"Lungs, liver... two heart valves... Fuck, this is bad! Ino! I need your help here!"

Ino didn't hear him, she was too stunned, too focused on the man toying with Sai as he attempted to land a hit on him; her gaze shifted to the two inert bodies – Naruto's behind her, and Itachi's slumped by Kiba to the side; everything had spiralled beyond her control! Everything had been on track – maybe a little behind schedule, but in the right direction!

And now? Naruto was comatose, she was being useless, and Itachi was... Ignoring Kiba's cry of protest she pulled as much chakra into her fist as she could and headed to join Sai; she crashed her fist into the earth at the man's feet, shattering the earth enough to unsteady even the trees.

She may not be strong close up with Madara, but his technique bothered her; even if he could make himself intangible, he was still in one place, not falling through the earth. Sure he probably had control over it, but even intangible, his body still had to be there. That included his mind.

She fished around in her med pack for a selection of shuriken, special shuriken with seals carved into them; according to her father, he had made the technique with a base off of the Hiraishin used by Naruto's father, though with some differences. Selecting the three shuriken, she quickly pricked her finger and smeared the seals with her blood and pushed chakra into them.

Before Madara could regain his footing, she had hurled three of them into a perfect triangular shape around him, formed the two hand seals required, aimed her hands towards him, and completed both stages of the two-level technique.

"Yamanaka Secret Technique; Two-Stage Complete Resurgence! Stage One; Restriction!"

Black, curved symbols shot from the shuriken across the ground, liking the three steel stars together, and over the same ground up the madman's body towards his head; Ino concentrated her chakra on the flow inside him, shrugging away the instinct of revulsion, and putting her effort into holding blocks on the pathways in his mind, stopping them from letting the tangibility art manifest. It took almost all her concentration to hold him back – this was the man who had used a resurgence technique with only his eyes, so to say he was inept in the arts surrounding the mind was foolish.

Unfortunately for him, Ino's concentration and mental blocks were fueld of stronger stuff than that which fueld his resistance; Ino formed a few more hand seals, anchoring the blocks in his mind – they wouldn't last long, but it would be enough.

"Stage Two; Obliteration!"

* * *

"I'm anything but weak" Naruto snorted.

She gave the image of black-white and red image of Sasuke a wary glance – she should have expected something like this the moment she realised what she had fallen into, but seeing was a different thing. It looked horribly realistic, if she ignored the black white and red look.

"If that's true then why are you out in the middle of nowhere?" Sasuke snarled, black flecks swarming across his skin, turning one of his eyes yellow on black.

No, this wasn't Sasuke! This was just an illusion! It was all a trap that she had mistakenly fallen into! Sasuke wouldn't say this to her; he had trusted her to find Juugo hadn't he? That was proof this was a lie!

..._Doesn't mean it isn't true though, does it?..._

Naruto's eyes snapped wide, and she flicked her eyes around, searching for the owner of the strange new voice. She couldn't see anyone...

"So what if you're the one dealing with Juugo? You wouldn't have known a thing without my help! You didn't help the first time, what makes you think you'd be of any use to me now?" he continued, sneering as the black flakes on his skin expanded, fading to grey as angry clawed wings burst from his back.

Naruto took a step backwards; she didn't want to see that. She couldn't see that! She scrunched her eyes closed as hands enclosed around her throat; not again, not this again! She tried stopping the flow of her chakra once again – nothing again. She dug her nails into the hands cutting of her air supply in the hopes it would all stop. She didn't want to see this again!

"You're pathetic! You can't even break Juugo out without being caught! If it wasn't for the Kyuubi, you'd be just the same as every other average ninja! You aren't worth the blood in your veins!"

She felt the Kyuubi stirring beneath her own chakra and clawed frantically at the hand on her throat again, kicking at the body that held her in the air; the Kyuubi couldn't come out here! She had already lost control once before, she had only regained control because Itachi had used his...

"_Are those eyes of yours for decoration? You are foolish... especially for the descendant of the ones who caged me here! Get rid of it!"_

She _had_ controlled it once before... hadn't she? It had been at the valley! She had been desperate at that point to stop whatever Kabuto had used on her working, to stop it making her fight Sasuke...

She had completely forgotten about it. Would it work on this? Itachi had never really explained how to use the Sharingan in terms of illusions – she had no patience for them in the first place, and she already knew how to dispel them the usual way, so it had been pushed to the back burner.  
_  
At _the very least, it was worth a try; she pulled up her chakra into her eyes, let the familiar prickle of activation pass before they snapped open._  
_  
"Get the hell out of my mind!"

* * *

Pushing her thoughts through her barriers, Ino felt the familiar rush of thoughts flooding her, much like in the mind-transfer. The difference this time was that she transferred her mind to his without the usual care, without the usual safety measures, allowing much freer reign inside the strange man's mind.

It did nothing to her, but the damage to his mind would be lasting, and she was going to make it very lasting if she got the chance; she found herself in a black and red world of boxes and risen floors, looking up a similar structure hung from the ceiling. Leaving no time to waste, she began forming more hand seals, and slammed her hands down onto the box she was standing on; she rifled through the irrelevant information that flooded into her mind.

There was so much nonsense!

Just travelling mostly, years and years of travelling; she was surprised he hadn't picked up a thing or to on sealing memories in that time. His actual defences were terrible! It was like eating cake! Focusing her search to the Sharingan, she finally found what she was looking for; Madara was interested in Naruto's eyes, very interested in them. Itachi's and Sasuke's too – was that why he hadn't put any considerable effort into catching her?

Focusing some more and speeding her search, she found some more information – there was interaction with Kyuubi of some kind, and mention of a brother; a grotesque image of pulling someone's eyes from their head flashed into her mind before a throb at the back of her mind alerted her to the failing blocks she had in place.

Staying any longer would be dangerous; taking the information she had as a blessing, she expelled herself from his mind and released the technique. She fell to the ground with a light thud – she had used a lot of chakra in that technique, she still couldn't use it efficiently outside of the interrogation unit.

She turned her attention away Madara and back to Kiba, hoping Sai would be able to handle the shaken madman by himself for now; seeing the dreary frown on his face she scrambled over adding what was left of her own chakra to the healing process. Feeling the injuries beneath the blemish free skin, she felt her hands begin to shake; it was like he had been dried and charred from the inside out... how was he still alive?

Fishing around in her pack, she pulled out a clear solution and tipped it down Itachi's throat – even his blood had been evaporated somewhat! She resumed the process of rejuvenating the organs and flesh as best she could without opening up his ribcage; even moving him from the edge of the fight would be disastrous right now. Kiba removed one hand, biting his thumb and forming a set of one-handed seals before slamming his hand to the ground.

A blue and white slug emerged from the resulting smoke.

"Katsuyu, we need your help here! Itachi needs surgery, but we can't even move him right now! Can you help us get him to a more stable condition and use reverse summoning to take us back to the village?" he asked, his usual politeness with the slug - forcibly drilled into him during his lessons with Tsunade - dying away with his haste.

Katsuyu nodded, and quickly slithered onto Itachi's barley breathing form, glowing with a slightly deeper green colour of chakra than Ino or Kiba.

"Get the hell out of my mind!"

Without any sort of warning, Naruto snapped awake; there had been no help from Kiba, his hands were busy trying to fix Itachi as best he could, and Ino had already tried to wake her up.

"Am I back? Did it work?" Naruto asked, sitting up next to Ino; Ino nodded dumbly, regaining her breath.

* * *

Naruto stood up, taking a glance around; she didn't know how long she had been out, but it seemed that everything had gone straight to the seventh fiery level of hell in the time she had – Itachi didn't look too great, especially with all the chakra stuck inside him.

Wait, why could she see that? She could see the chakra Kiba was using to heal him easy enough, but what was that stuff just underneath? It looked like it was eating at him! In fact now that she looked around, everything was still black, white and red! Kiba was staring at her in complete and utter shock, and Ino had that 'you idiot...' look on her face...

"Naruto, you have the Sharingan?" Kiba asked, his voice rising several octaves.

Well shit; that would be the explanation then. Still, there were other things to worry about so she did not have time to play storyteller, like how Sai was trying to fend of her crazy ancestor by himself Ino was half dead to the world, and Itachi was on horribly close to shaking Death's hand at his doorstep.

"Get Ino to tell you, but fix Itachi! There's some weird chakra munching away at his insides! You need to get rid of it fast!" she barked irritably – this was turning out to be such a crappy day after such a good start, and she hated those days.

Ino lost all interest in her accidental revelation, and turned back to Itachi, garbling a speedy version of events and explanations for Kiba as Naruto made her way over to aid Sai; if she looked closely at the man he was fighting, she could see his chakra mixing, changing every time Sai's attacks passed through him.

His chakra was still there, it was just changing for a few moments on command... was that what made him impossible to hit? But if he was so intangible, shouldn't his chakra be invisible? Right, her Sharingan was doing something weird again. Maybe it had something to do with the black and red she was seeing everywhere.

Back to the matter at hand; if his chakra was still in once place, then he was not intangible, he could be hit – it was just a matter of where to hit, and how hard to hit. If Itachi was awake, Amaterasu would have been perfect! He'd explained it once, but she didn't have anything of that magnitude in her arsenal other than the Rasenshuriken, and she didn't want to chow up her arm again without the knowledge that it would be successful.

She didn't want to use the Kyuubi chakra if she could avoid it – that would be disastrous – but she had to help Sai; as she encroached the fray, her thought fluttered back to Itachi's Amaterasu. She'd seen him use it enough times, but she had no idea how to use it, and in any case she did not have a Mangekyo Sharingan.

Deciding that she would be best of using techniques that were less likely to backfire, she began to mould her wind natured chakra. Her vision, despite the odd colouring, had definitely improved – she could almost see the tiny particles gnashing and gouging against each other as she moulded it, getting sharper and sharper by the moment.

By the time she reached the fight – which was really Madara popping up out of holes in the ground while Sai tried to whack him on the head – Sai was looking rather irritated. At another time she might have congratulated him for allowing an actual emotion out, but she had more important things to be worrying about.

Gathering as much of the increasingly sharpening chakra into her hands, she slammed together, and stretched the chakra in both of them to a thin, but powerful blade; it had to be sharp enough to cut off the man's chakra itself, destroy it – if she could do that then they would have an opening, a decent one.

Satisfied she had the airy blade thin enough and sharp enough she let it loose; she found that if she stared and put some chakra into her strange new vision, she could control the trajectory much more easily, and aimed for the man's chest – if she cut of his use of physical energies, he wouldn't be able to form anything for a descent amount of time. Of course she had to destroy the chakra preventing their attacks from sticking before she could do that, but she was certain that she had at least bough a few minuets of tangibility.

The chakra sped towards him in a thin sharp wisp, splitting in the air as it flew towards him, plunging through his arm; she could feel the smirk behind the mask as it passed through him, but concentrated her efforts and kept her focus on him. The thin wisps swarmed around him, darting in and out as he tried to shoo them away like a swarm of viscous insects.

Naruto felt her confidence boost; that was not mere irritation! He didn't like those wispy blades attacking him as they were. She slammed her hands together once again, drawing her chakra into anther long blade and hurling it towards the rest, watching it separate once again and begin its viscous attack.

She watched with bated breath, feeling her breath coming in short rasps and her eyes both burning from the effort; this was taking so much chakra it was unreal, but she was getting results – she could see small slices in the black cloak the man wore, showing tiny specs of bleeding skin.

Taking a chance, she formed her fingers into the hand seals for a fireball, putting twice the effort into making the crackling, spitting feel of the chakra than usual; with one deep gulp of air a spurt of intense black flame burst from her lips – the heat was enough to force even its caster to take a few steps backwards as it mingled with the darting whips of wind into a swirling mass of intense flame.

The snarl from the masked man was enough to tell her that her plan was working; attacking his chakra was the answer instead of his untouchable body – without chakra he wouldn't be intangible, and if he wasn't intangible, then he wasn't invulnerable to their attacks.

She felt the searing pain in her eyes disappearing as the black and red monochrome world returned to Technicolor and felt her energy disappearing – for a technique she had made up on the fly, that had taken up a lot more chakra than she was used to – almost as much as two Rasenshurikens back to back.

The man glared at her through the... were those flames black? But that had just been the funky vision hadn't it? Shaking the though for the moment, she watched as Madara glared at her thought the black heat.

In a last ditch effort to quell the flames, he flicked a sharpened boomerang-like object towards her eyes – she swiftly brought a kunai from her holster to deflect it. The man had a shabby through and she easily deflected it back to him, wincing as left a ling thin slice in the forearm that held the kunai up to protect her face.

He caught the boomerang thing on one finger, and then smiled at her for a few bone chilling moments, before completely disappearing.

She didn't know whether to relieved he was gone and that she had begun to figure out one of his tricks, or worried that he had still managed to disappear despite how much chakra she had spent trying to kill the bastard.

It wasn't much of a concern really; she keeled over and hit the ground moments later from sheer exhaustion.

* * *

Sakura stared at the chaos in front of her as she approached the hospital gates with Tsunade; Shizune and a medical team from the hospital stood by the visitor post, orders being yelled every which way by the brunette in preparation. There had been a report from one of the ANBU that Katsuyu had appeared at the hospital; the only team with access to Katsuyu was that made of seven and eight.

She watched as Naruto was carried past on a stretcher, looking very pale; Shino was accompanying the medics carrying her, his bugs swarming all over – that meant she had sever chakra exhaustion at the very least. Aburames were only called on to aid with extreme cases of it though...

Sai and Hinata were leading an orange haired boy towards the psychiatric wing – was that Juugo? He didn't look very cursed-seal like if he was – and Kakashi was already deep in discussion with Tsunade about the mission. Deciding she would be more useful helping the medics, she pushed past a team heading after Hinata and Sai.

A cluster of medics surrounding one stretcher caught her eye, and a yell drew her eyes to Kiba – he had the look of exhaustion that only came from high level medical training, and was busy trying to restrain a blonde girl. Her eyes widened and she dashed into the fray, oblivious to Tsunade's objection, towards the two of them.

"Ino let them do their job!" Kiba yelled, his arms linking under Ino's to the back of her head in an attempt to keep her from doing god knows what.

"Let me help you asshole! Let go of me! Let me help him!" Ino screamed in reply, seemingly oblivious to the continuous lines of salt solution staining her cheeks, going so far as to biting Kiba's wrist.

There were only two things that would have Ino reacting like this, her team, and Itachi; from what she had already seen, it was most likely Itachi. Pushing past the group of medics, deep in concentration, she felt her gut churn at what she was seeing.

Katsuyu had shrunk herself to be of more use as the medics placed meters of seals round Itachi's chest; anther two were using chakra to pull a thick, burnt looking substance from his insides, through his skin. Jesus, no wonder Ino was so hysterical – this was an operation for a theatre, not the middle of the courtyard. Was the damage really that bad?

"Sakura, can you please assist? He needs intubation, replacement treatment, and at least half of his chakra network transplanted before we can even begin surgery on his internal organs; we have our hands full just keeping him alive at the moment"

Sakura stared at the medic who had spoken to her in horror – she'd never _transplanted_ the chakra network before! She'd studied it, and read up on the basic steps, but Kiba was wary of that technique, and he was a heck of a lot better in surgeries than she was! They wanted her to start practising on Itachi when he was at death's door?

"Ow! Ino, you're in no shape to help him right now! I've already had to give you some chakra to keep you standing!" Kiba yelled, trying to reason with Ino, wincing at the feel of her teeth on his wrist.

"Let me go Kiba! Please!"

Sakura watched as Kiba wrapped one arm around Ino's waist and raised his other to the back of her neck in desperation of his own – it was no easy task with Ino fighting him every step of the way. She may not have been capable of using the strength she had learned from Tsunade, but she had a decent punch without it.

Ino slumped into unwilling unconsciousness, and Kiba let out a sigh of relief, before handing her to one of the medics, giving instructions for chakra replenishment treatments, and instructions to call Inochi for a neural check up, before turning to go talk with Tsunade.

"Sakura!"

Sakura jerked her head back to the medic and gave a hesitant nod, before kneeling down next to him.  
"Where am I doing this? Do you want me to do the intubation?" she asked.

"We can keep him going with chakra supplements and CCR until he's had the transplant – the chakra network around his lungs, liver, kidneys, and a couple of heart valves has been completely charred from the inside according to Kiba"

"From the inside?" Sakura exclaimed, eyes widening as the medic continued.

"He repaired as much of the central damage with Ino as he could, but he needs a complete rebuild of chakra network in those areas all the same, or a very big repair job at the very least…"

Sakura wasn't surprised, and quickly began pulling off her fingerless gloves - she had just come from a training session… did she even have the chakra for this?

"…We'll be busy trying to repair the damage to his organs themselves, so you'll have to go in from the sides until he's stable enough to be taken to surgery," the medic explained, even as another took the job of making sure the breathing bag over Itachi's mouth was working.

Sakura gulped, but placed her hands on Itachi's left side above the mass of seals that had been placed there to keep the blood pumping round his veins; she focused her chakra into his side, searching for the damaged areas of his chakra system. She eventually found the area linked to his liver and began the slow process of repairing the damage.

She couldn't believe he was still alive – it was a testament to Kiba's skills and the aid provided by Katsuyu; if she hadn't agreed to transport Itachi back with the reverse summoning (the only way she could think of that could have got them back in time) or helped with the initial healing...

Sakura felt it safe to say it was going to be a long day.

* * *

"You were reckless! ..._He had to be – he had to force her to use the Sharingan to reforge the link into her mind._"

The plant man was applying a salve to his arm; that little fox brat had done quite a number on it. How had she seen it? Even Itachi hadn't seen it, and his Mangekyo was nothing short of magnificent – not on the same level of his own as course, but still magnificent.

He hadn't dreamed her Sharingan would be so strong – it made him all the more impatient, but he had to be patient. He needed that girl. Not just for her demon, but so he could have those eyes, eyes infinitely stronger than his own. But still... he had not expected her to find his weak spot, well, one of them.

He supposed she was just fortunate her eyes were so strong – Itachi hadn't noticed at all. He couldn't see that well. He wondered how long it would be before his eyes began to drain, began to die inside his skull. Well, not that it really mattered – he didn't want Itachi eyes.

"She still found his weak spot! …_it doesn't matter - if this works she won't have opportunity exploit it, nor will she reveal it!_"

The plant man's mismatched hands moved to heal his burnt chest with a green glowing chakra.

"It was necessary; I needed to get inside her mind without her knowing. I _need_ to be able to manipulate her…" he hissed, break off the internal, yet separate argument between the two halves.

"But the Yamanaka girl saw too much!"  
The other half didn't have a reply for that argument.

"She saw what I wanted her to see; they'll be so focused on what she saw, they won't pay any attention to my real goal…" he replied, sitting forwards so Zetsu could reach his back with a little more ease.

"You were reckless! You almost killed Itachi! ..._It won't work without Itachi!_"  
"Will you relax? Itachi wont die, I was careful to make certain of that. I just need to own her mind, and I've done that. She'll be far beyond even Sasuke's aid if I want her to be," he told the plant man.

Honestly, did Zetsu not think he had considered that possibility? Naruto was probably a better choice, but power was one thing. Power that could drive you mad was not appealing, but if Itachi had died he could have worked around that.

He knew how the blood of the uchihas worked though, and that gave him more than enough control. More importantly he had been inside her mind; he knew _just_ how far she would go to get Sasuke back. He knew just how much like a demon she was, whether she knew it or not. He knew how to control the Kyuubi, so he knew how to control _her_.

"Orochimaru wont like it ..._Orochimaru doesn't have to like it – he's a nuisance! _...We need his techniques! Orochimaru wont like it, and making him irritated is unwise ..._Sasuke has to escape for it to work though – Sasuke is irreplaceable in this-_"

"Orochimaru will not be a problem – is Deidara planning on breaking Sasuke out or will we have to meddle directly?" he asked again, interrupting Zetsu's internal conflict.

"He showed her where to find Juugo – he's going to do it himself ..._He isn't sure about the time though, Orochimaru doesn't trust him for obvious reasons, that's why the transfer date is being kept quiet _…We might have to meddle a bit, but he should do the breaking in with a nudge in the right place."

He smirked as he pulled on his mask; everything was going according to plan.

* * *

Naruto was the first to wake up; the moment she was awake, she gave a few moments to check on Itachi and Ino, before packing her things and hot footing it out of the hospital. It was not that she held no worry over Itachi's condition.

It was quite the opposite, but Itachi himself would frown if he awoke to find out she had been moping around waiting for him to wake up when there were more important things to be doing, so she restrained herself to a half-hour visit everyday.

She probably should have waited for a few more days before leaving though – she had one heck of a migraine for the past seven days – it didn't fade, it didn't dim, it just stayed the same. It didn't even cause her any pain really, it was just annoying.

A buzzing in the back of her mind, almost like a whisper that kept niggling at her. It was loud enough to bother her when she was alone, but so quiet that it seemed to disappear when she was talking to other people. It was really beginning to irritate her, and she had better things to do!

Since she had left the hospital, her focus was on the scrolls Ino had found in Sunagakure in the old catacomb; the parchment was dangerously fragile, and it was taking all her time just to unroll them, never mind disarming the traps inside that prevented her from even trying to decode the old runes. It didn't help that she was horribly distracted by events prior to invading Orochimaru's hideout.

Deidara...

* * *

_Naruto glanced around the bushes with a critical eye; she could have sworn she had seen someone when she was talking to Itachi, but there was no sign of anyone. There wasn't even a footprint to go by. She was about to give up when she was suddenly grabbed from behind. Before she had time to protest or get a look at her attacker there was a flash, then a sick sensation of moving much to fast for her stomach to keep up with, and then she was miles high in the air on the back of a clay bird._

_Once she got an idea of just how high she was up in the air, she didn't even think about her following actions; she instinctively grabbed onto the closet sturdy thing for support. It took several moments before she realised she was clinging rather fervently to someone in an Akatsuki cloak._

_The two pieces of information clicked together in her mind, and she shrieked in horror; she was hugging an Akatsuki – her captor – and was about a thousand feet up in the air with no means of escape. To make matters worse, her shriek had set her off balance and she wobbled dangerously towards the empty air on one side of the bird.  
__"__Will you calm down? I did not go to all the trouble of ditching that stupid fish of a ninja just for you to fall off and kill yourself Yeah!"_

_Deidara grabbed her arm and yanked her back onto the safer spot in the middle of the birds back; oh how fine. Not only was she being kidnapped by Akatsuki, she had to put up with him too. What an absolutely brilliant day this had turned out to be._

_"__For god's sake, I'm not going to bite! Do you want to fall off this thing? Grab on!" he ordered, not glancing once over his shoulder, too focused on steering the clay creation beneath them._

_Naruto shot him the best glare she could muster, not only drawing one those of Itachi and Sasuke, but Ino's, Tsunade's, and Sakura's in an attempt to at least cause some discomfort as she reluctantly held onto his waist. If this had been on the ground, she would be killing him already, but when trees looked like dots on the ground beneath her, and she had yet to learn how to fly, it was not a good idea to pick a fight._

_She could just throw her brother off the bird herself, but she didn't know the first thing about flying clay life forms, and the moment Deidara died, his techniques would be certain to vanish with him, and she would plummet to her death all the same. _

_Glaring was the best she could do for the moment._

_The ground flew by beneath her, dizzyingly so; the feeling did nothing to relive her already churning stomach. This man, her own brother, wanted to kill her, was probably going to do just that once they got to wherever he was taking them, and here she was clinging onto him for dear life._

_The thought was revolting._

_"__Why aren't you yelling?"_

_The question caught her off guard, and she dropped the glare to stare at him in confusion for a few moments, before picking it up again._

_"__What good would it do? We're miles from my team by now – even if I could contact Sai, I doubt he'd catch up by now; what's the point in wasting my voice on help that isn't coming when I can use my own head to get myself out of this?" she snapped._

_Then she cursed herself for revealing her escape plans, or plans to make escape plans. Whatever – she had broken the first rule of a hostage situation and revealed something about her to an enemy. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!_

_"__Didn't I just tell you to relax? I'm not going to kill you yeah!"_

_Naruto snorted.  
__"__Fine; you're going to rip a demon out of my guts – death'll just be a little side effect!"_

_Deidara seemed to howl and snarl with frustration at something before sending the bird onto a steep, sweeping downward arc._

_Naruto shrieked as the wind ripped past her on the almost vertical descent before sharply turning and skimming over a range of pine trees – she was really going to throw up on this guy if he kept doing that. She let out another yelp as the bird suddenly darted upwards again, and despite the creeping feeling of disgust, she buried her head in her brother's back and clung on for dear life._

_The shrieking wail of the wind seemed to last forever; it wasn't the noise or the wind itself that bothered her of course – she was a freaking wind nature, how bad would it be if she was afraid of her own element? - It was the speed the noise told her they were travelling at. And the noise._

_It was loud enough to block out almost all her thoughts; she almost cried with relief when the bird screeched, halting in mid air at Deidara's instruction. She found herself loathe to look up and see where they were, but she did._

_It didn't look like an Akatsuki base; below them was a pebbly, grey beach, indistinguishable save for a few gnarled trees from the hundreds of others that spawned like frogs throughout water country. In the distance, in the middle of the calm, inland sea, a large pinnacle of rocky crags protruded from the water._

_"__That's Orochimaru's base."_

_That immediately caught her attention; disbelief, hope, and suspicion welled up inside her._

_"__Excuse me? You think I'm going to believe that? Are you nuts? I'm not going in there just so you and your creepy little Akatsuki pals can get hold of the Kyuubi! I am not stupid!"_

_He glared at her and let out another snarl, pulling on his hair in frustration.  
__  
"__What is it going to take for you to believe me when I tell you I'm not going to kill you?" he demanded._

_She stared at him incredulously._

_"__...You're an idiot aren't you; Itachi told me you were, but I didn't actually believe him! You're a freaking Akatsuki! AK-AT-SU-KI! Demon extractor extraordinaire! I'm a jinchurki – the _Kyuubi_ jinchurki! I'm the crown of the collection! What part of that does not make sense to you?"_

_Holy freaking fire... What kind of mind did he have? No wonder he was Akatsuki. He was probably just as nuts as she was – maybe there was a family tendency towards craziness. He was a kiddie ninja like Itachi right? He probably snapped then. Oh well, at least she was holding out better than he had. That was something to be happy about, wasn't it?_

_"__All right! I'm not going to kill you - yet. Happy? Can we stop quibbling over terminology now, yeah?"_

_Oh for the love of...__  
__"__It's not a problem of terminology! You're an Akatsuki! I can't trust you on principle! That's just common sense!"_

_They glared at each other for a long moment before reaching a stalemate._

_"__Would you accept the fact I'm telling the truth if I told you Orochimaru is a pasty faced git, and I want to piss him off by letting loose his pet Uchiha?" he asked through gritted teeth._

_Naruto considered it for a long time._

_"__Fine, but I still think this is part of an elaborate plot to suck out the Kyuubi."  
__"__Good enough for me – can you remember where this place is?"_

_Naruto nodded, activating her Sharingan – no point in hiding it from him. He had already seen it when they fought on the way to rescue Gaara. She stared at the landscape, ingraining it into her memory. She could probably remember without it, but there was no harm in being certain._

_"__All right – I can find this place again. What no-"_

__

Her words drowned out in another shriek as the bird began to rip through the air, back towards the campsite. She found herself clinging on to him before he could remind her. She briefly wondered if he had been joking, and if he really was taking back to the one of the Akatsuki hideouts, but she recognised some of the scenery and... was that Ino below them?

"Believe me now?" he asked, sounding a little desperate for some reason.  
"I believe you are doing whatever you have to for your own personal gain, and still intend to kill me," she replied shortly.

He turned around and she found herself staring at his for the first time since he had snatched her from the ground; she couldn't decipher the look on his face at all. It was almost chillingly blank. Almost, but not quite. Shouldn't it be though? He made no sense to her at all.

"In that case, take this..."

He threw a scroll at her – she instinctively reached out to catch it before it fell to the ground. She stared at the small carvings on either end of the wooden holder. 'Sea Wind', Namikaze. This...! This was her father's scroll! That was his name! It was an actual family scroll!

_"...I want a decent fight when I come after you, so you'd better hurry up and learn that, otherwise you'll never keep up with me, yeah."_

_Naruto stared at him. He was making no sense! None at all! What was the point in making his job harder? Before she had a chance to ask, he had pushed her off the side of the clay animal, grinning like an idiot as she fell to the ground below, landing with a shriek and a thud on the ground beside Ino. _

* * *

Naruto frowned and turned her back on the scrolls; she couldn't think about seals right now.

Everything had turned upside down in what had felt like seconds; Ino was absolutely useless right now, Itachi's life was hanging by a thread, almost every single Uchiha in the village was dead, Jiraiya hadn't checked in for weeks, the deadline was drawing closer and closer, and now Deidara was doing stupid confusing things.

Naruto didn't want confusing things right now. She needed to focus, focus on Sasuke. Kiba was working with Inoro and Sakura on curing the defection Juugo's blood right now. She wasn't a medic, but maybe she could help carry boxes or something. At least Shikamaru had enough common courtesy to back off for the moment...

She wanted to feel useful. She had tried training, but she couldn't concentrate – she hadn't even dared look in the scroll Deidara had given her. She wanted to start training with the toads far more than she wanted to do anything he told her to.

Unfortunately, Jiraiya had seemingly dropped off the face of the earth, making such a thing impossible. She picked up the scrolls, intending to put them back on the shelf in the room where she kept all her ninja equipments and scrolls and spare kunai. As she lifted them to the shelf, something caught her eye.

There was blood on her hand; dried, but it was still blood. She must have cut herself in training or something without noticing. Dropping the scrolls on the shelf, she headed for the bathroom, and began to scrub at the dirty red patch on her hand.

Instead of dissolving, it liquefied, multiplied, and began to spread all over her hands. Frantically she began to scrub harder, but it continued to spread. Glancing around the bathroom, searching for something to staunch the flow, her eyes glanced towards the mirror, towards her reflection.

Horror filled her eyes as she stared at before letting a blood-curdling scream; it was everywhere. All over her face, her clothes, dried into her hair, turning it a burnt red, it was everywhere. Her hands began to shake as she took another glance around the room.

It was eve on the walls; the iron stench invaded her nostrils, making her sick to her stomach. What kind of illusion was this? Was someone playing a twisted joke on the Kyuubi girl? No, this was too much for a joke. Darting out of the bathroom, she banged through the doors of the other rooms.

Everywhere, it was everywhere, splashed over the walls the furniture, the floor. Damn it, what was going on? She hadn't felt anyone approaching her at all! This had to be an illusion... there was no way it could be real...

A horrible stench wafted from the room she had just deposited the scrolls in, the only room she had yet to check. It smelled much stronger than the rest of the rooms, tainted even. It was familiar, but she couldn't remember where it had come from... when she had caught this scent before?

Nervously, she slowly pushed the door, wincing at the onslaught that descended in her nostrils; it was dark. Horribly dark; she stumbled over something that hadn't been there before as she fumbled for the light switch – the wet sticky feeling of it told her there was blood in here too.

She flicked the switch, and cast her eyes around the room; her blood curdled, and she backed into the wall, sliding to the blood splattered floor, her breathing raspy and shaking.

Blood spilled from his eye sockets the vacant holes staring at her, down into his hair. He was bent inhumanly backward over the table in the middle, jaw frozen in shock or pain, and his clawed wings ere flat beneath him; no other part was transformed, that was impossible, his ribs had been pulled apart, dead organs on display.

"Stop it... Stop it..." she tried to avert her gaze, but those vacant sockets seemed to follow her just as if they had been filled. She lunged for the door, but it slammed closed, locking itself.

"Stop it!" she gathered her chakra in her fists and crashed them onto the wood of the door; it didn't budge. What should have been a devastating destructive blow was completely ineffectually.

_...This was the only way to get your attention..._

She froze, slowly turning around the room, searching for someone who could have spoken. Only that contorted body occupied it, and resumed her hammering on the door.

"This isn't real... this isn't real..." she mumbled, giving the hinges of the door a kick.

_...It is real. Or it will be. If Orochimaru takes over his body...  
_"Bullshit! We have Juugo, and we'll cure him!"

She answered before she realised, and cursed. Talking to this creep was not good – she was getting sucked into the illusion. She gathered her chakra and stopped it flowing, before sharply restarting the flow. It didn't work. It was supposed to work!

She activated her Sharingan, trying to remember what she had done when Madara had stuck her in Tsukiyomi or whatever it was.

"Stop it! Get out! Get out! Get out of my head!" she yelled, hammering on the door. She felt like someone was watching her from those vacant sockets, watching her every move, ant it sent another crawling cold shiver over her skin.

_...You think this is an illusion? This is your own mind Naruto – you know this will happen already, one way or another. No-one wants Orochimaru to have the Sharingan. Either I kill him, or your village kills him..._

She stopped, sliding back to the floor. She didn't know how to get out. She knew this was fake all of it, and she should never listen to mysterious voices (because that was just stupid – illusion or no illusion), but the horrible truth was literally in the room with her, even if she refused to look at it.

"Why are you…? What... Why are you doing this? Leave me alone... This isn't going to happen! There's still time..."

She curled up, hiding her eyes in her knees to keep from seeing that... from seeing the table. It was bad enough that she could smell it. She tried putting her hands over her ears to block out the voice, but it was echoing inside her head, not the air around her.

_...There is no time left, and you know it. Ino knows it. Itachi knows it. There is no time..._

She curled tighter – it was right. Konoha would kill Sasuke if Orochimaru took him over – Orochimaru would be too dangerous to be allowed to go free with the Sharingan.

_...I'll kill him too, but I have more important things to do, things I can't do myself. If you help me, I'll help Sasuke. I'll get him out before Orochimaru can get to him..._

Naruto's eyes snapped a fraction wider at that.

"So just kill him before Orochimaru can take him over! That would solve everyone's problem wouldn't it? Just get it over with and leave me alone!" she yelled, feeling tears beginning to well up at the mere idea.

_...I just said it didn't I? I need your help – if getting Sasuke away from Orochimaru helps me, that's what I'll do. But if you insist..._

There was a choking noise – Naruto raised her head from her knees and began to tremble violently. The body on the table that had been lifeless since she had entered, was moving. It was groaning, and there was a light flutter in the organs suddenly more glaringly visible than before.

Then it stopped. There was a cough, a groan, and blood gurgled from its mouth before falling limp once again. Falling completely lifeless once again. No! No! No! No! He couldn't have been alive! It was impossible! But he had just choked, hadn't he? She had just left him there!

The body choked again, and she scrambled to her feet; she tried to push the ribs and broken flaps of torso skin back into place without causing any more damage as best she could, ignoring the gushing river of blood that seemed to drown her.

There was another choking noise and she clung to the body, trying to keep as much blood from escaping as she could. There already so much lost... so much was coving the walls, her, the walls, her, and it didn't end...

He lurched upwards, screaming in agony at something, and she fought to keep him lying down. Lifting one of the flaps, a stream of blood spat into her face, clouding her eyes; she wiped it away, and tried to find the source. There! The heart. It was like something was smothering it, it was struggling to rise.

"Stop it! Stop it! He's dying! Can't you see that? You're killing him!" she screamed, plunging her hands into the gluttony of organs, trying to keep the blood pumper working herself. As long as it was still pushing blood to the brain with oxygen, there was a chance...

The groaning noises of agony were dimming, and she felt desperation rising.

"Stop it! Please!"

_...Will you help me with what I want? You have to swear... You have to whatever I say without question or complaint. If you do, I won't help him, do you understand? You. Have. To. Promise..._

Something roared at her to say no, that if she agreed, she was signing an unbreakable contract. The feeling was almost overpowering, but... but she didn't have any options! She couldn't let this happen. This was what she was trying to avoid...

_"Then why?" Itachi asked._

"_Because if I don't, it would be like loosing my mind anyway; I don't want a life without Sasuke in it. I don't care if I go a little crazy on the way if it results in getting him back home, back with us, with me..."_

Itachi had asked why she want so far. He didn't like, she could tell even from his voice, the extent to which she pushed herself, but did it really matter? The only reason she was in this mess was because Sasuke was gone. If he was back...

"Just... Just until you get what you want right? Once yore done, you won't bother me again?"  
_...No. Just this once – it's not even very much I want you to do. Easy stuff..._

Naruto chewed on her lip. Something kept screaming at her to say no, but she stamped it back down instinctively, like it was the natural thing to do. She didn't trust this... this voice at all. Not one bit, but if it was telling the truth then... then there would be a chance. A tiny, tiny chance, but a chance all the same.

Surely that was worth it?

"You have to swear too! You have to promise that once I've done what you want me to, and that once Sasuke's away from that snake you won't bother us again!"

_…I promise. You'll help me then?..._

Naruto gulped, and nodded.

_...You have to swear. You have to promise. Look me in the eyes and say it..._

Feeling sick, her hands still a hold of his heat, she slowly turned her head towards those vacant eye sockets. As she stared, ignoring the shiver of horror that crawled over her for what she was about to do and the sight itself, something glimmered in them.

Red and spinning, it sucked her gaze into it. The roaring within her started up again, but even though it was louder in her chest and ears than before, much louder, it was almost inaudible. So it was ignorable.

_...Say it. You have to say it out loud...  
_"I... I promise... In return for your help. You help him... and I'll do whatever you ask..."

_...you can't talk about this to anyone; say it..._  
"I won't... I won't talk about it..."

The faintly beading heart in her grasp disappeared with the grotesque body, the blood on the walls, the blood that soaked her glimmered and disappeared, and the door clicked open.

All of a sudden she felt exhausted, and sleep began to cloud her mind. As she crumpled to the floor, a soft voice on the air, she couldn't help feeling that, even if it was worth it, she had just made a terrible mistake.

…_Good Girl..._

* * *

**_You didn't think Maddy was that stupid did you?_**

**_Maddy's baaaaaaack! And he's on kick ass manipulation mode!_**

**_I loooove Madara! I love cliffhangers, and plot-twists! I can guarantee that anything canon from now on will be in the background, or for functional reasons only. I know it took ages, but I had to build everything up to this point._**

**_Besides, it's not exactly canon. The time line I'll admit I haven't changed much, but I changed a lot of things around, and threw in some new stuff... sorta. Anyway, there will be notable changes._**

**_I Promise. Really. I have about twenty seven chapters finished (some need grammar checks, but they're done as far as plot goes, so they count), so hopefully updaes will improve; no guarantees hough. My inter nect access is limited. _**

**_My new laptop is broken, the old one doesn't have the internet, the home computer is too slow and doesn't seem to understand a text centering button and drops out half of my document when I upload it. As for college computers, is freaking blocked, so I can't use those anymore. Grr._**

**_Hope you liked the chapter anyway._**  
**_If you did, review! _**

**_Nat._**  
**_xxx_**


	13. Act XIII: The Faustian Deal

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

**

* * *

**

**ACT II: SCENE XIII**  
**~ THE FAUSTIAN DEAL ~**

* * *

Sakura frowned at the blood samples in front of her; Kiba had taken them from Juugo almost a week ago, and once Itachi had been admitted into surgery and her aid was no longer needed by the senior medics, she had joined him in the lab.

The timing was everything here, and with Inoro busy helping his fATHER in interrogation, and Ino glued to Itachi's hospital bed, it was left to her and Kiba to make sure Juugo's blood was cured. The problem lay in a birth defect, a disease in his enzymes.

It was a simple matter to repair it in the petri dishes with the help of microscopes, but getting same effect into Juugo himself was not going to be so easy. It would almost be like re-building him from the ground up. Tsunade had given it a quick look and told her the answer was fairly simple, but apparently she wanted them to try and figure it out themselves.

She had told them to go find Ino if they got really stuck, but Sakura was determined not to do that – she didn't want to bother Ino right now, and besides, she wanted to figure it out herself.

"I can't see anything" she groaned, lifting her eye from the microscope.

Kiba grunted in reply as he riffled through a scroll; he was seated on the floor, absolutely surrounded by books, scrolls, mountains of paper coffee cups, and all the information on the cursed seal that had been recovered from the first base Naruto and Ino had broken into.

His hair stuck out every which way and he had bags under his eyes from several late nights in a row. Kiba seemed to know something she didn't about the situation. She could have passed it off as simply being there at the time of the attack, but there was something else.

Whatever it was, it was making him work harder than she had ever though possible from him, without being threatened by Tsunade at least. He reached around absently for a coffee cup, swallowed some then, and began to pull on his hair in frustration.

"Gagh! I know I can fix this, it's right there in front of me, but I cant for the life of me figure it out!" he howled.

Sakura glared at the petri dish she had just been examining.

"What I don't understand is how curing Juugo will cure Sasuke... I can understand a chakra link, but from such a distance? Juugo was kept in one place, but Sasuke went everywhere Orochimaru did..."

"I think it works sort of like a parasite… no, maybe a virus? no a parasite; even though the cursed seal is outside of Juugo's body and was heavily neutralised, it's still somewhat... dependent on Juugo – like it's feeding off of the host for its… parent or something."

Sakura frowned for a moment.  
"It attacks the enzymes, so wouldn't we have to replace them in Juugo at the same time?"

Kiba nodded.

"We have to do it at the exact same time as the infected enzymes are destroyed, or there could be repercussions for Sasuke. If Juugo's goes rampant, then Sasuke could too. Juugo can handle the cursed seal because he was born with it, but in other people it just burns through their cells like wildfire...

"That won't be hard though – the defect itself is relatively simple to cure. It was the first thing we did with the cell samples. It's just figuring out how to do it that keeps getting in the way. I can't think of an antidote formula that can stand up to that on such a high ..."

Kiba sat up staring at the wall, a curios expression on his face as he thought something over. His eyes widened, and he jumped up, startling the giant dog that had been sleeping by the door.

"That's it! That's it! That it!" he yelled, darting for the store cupboard.

Sakura darted from her chair and followed him inside to demand an explanation; once he had finished explaining she was almost hopping mad that she hadn't realised it earlier, and darted out to start pulling out petri dishes.

They were going to need lots and lots of petri dishes.

* * *

When Naruto awoke, she was lying on the floor of her flat with a pounding headache. Sitting up, she stared around the room warily – she remembered what she had seen the night before all too clearly; panic filled her immediately. She darted up, out of the room, and towards the door leading out of the small apartment.

She fumbled with shaking hands, forcing the door open and darting down the steps to the street below. She had to tell someone. Things had crossed a line – whoever that voice had belonged to was no friend of hers, and she couldn't do something that could potentially harm the village, not even for Sasuke. He wouldn't want her to.

She had to tell Itachi!

She stopped midway on the stairs and swore – Itachi was completely comatose right now! Tsunade would be too busy this time of the morning, Ino was no good... Maybe Inochi? No, you needed an appointment during the day, and those took weeks to get. Shisui? Only if she had to – he had his hands full trying to keep the few remaining Uchihas who had been working in the police station sane.

Jiraiya was off in the middle of god knows where... there was no-one, not unless she wanted to wait, but this had to be told to someone now. It was too dangerous to be left alone, but who was she supposed to tell? She needed to get this to someone in authority, anyone, but as much as she liked to barge in and out of Tsunade's office as she pleased, there was just too much going on into the village right now...

Who was close enough to Tsunade that she knew well enough to disclose this information to? She hunched down on the bottom step of the flight that led to her apartment, watching the villagers mill about as she wrung her hands through her bunches.

_...You can't tell anyone you know; You swore remember?..._

"Shut up!" she hissed, taking care not to be overheard – the last thing she needed was for the villagers to see the Kyuubi girl seemingly talking to herself.

_...You think you can back out of this now? You have no choice..._

"Shut up – I'm _not _going to listen to you!" she hissed again, hiding her head from street view so no-one could see her lips moving.

_...You already are..._

She ran. She darted amongst the villagers, jerking down random streets – whoever this was they had to be somewhere nearby. This was a technique of some kind... like Ino's telepathy or something. She had to talk to Inochi. As she darted through the crowds, a glimmer of purple caught her eye, and a long ponytail several inches shorter than Ino's.

Of course! Inoro! He could get her in to see Inochi without a fuss! She darted after him, dodging villagers and the odd market stall. Finally, she glimpsed the yellow boar symbol on the back of his short sleeveless purple haori heading off into the distance.

"Inoro!" she yelled, barging past a grumpy man holding a box of tomatoes.

Inoro turned at the call of his name, his eggshell eyes curious. She hurried to catch up with him, and by the time she was standing in front of him her breath was raspy and short. He stared at her for a few moments, before a hand went to his forehead.

"Naruto? What's wrong with you? Your head is giving me a migraine..."  
"Inoro, I need to see your dad! You have to get me in to see him today! Now!" she told him, grabbing his arm and heading down another street.

He stared at her for a few moments before pulling his arm from her grasp.

"Naruto, you're asking the impossible! The fire has got everyone in the village completely off their feet – even I can't get more than two words to him at the moment!"

Her face paled – she had to see him! There was no ifs, ands, or buts about it!

"Inoro you don't get it, I don't want to see him for a cup of tea and friendly chat! I _need _to see him! Someone's-"

It felt like someone had sucked the air from her lungs; a great, thick pressure surrounded her throat before she could get the words out. Instinctively, her hands went to her throat, pulling on what was merely thin air.

"Naruto, what are you _doing?_"

Inoro immediately grabbed hold of her hands, pulling them away from her throat. She shook her head, still clawing at her neck desperately – she had to get it off... this wasn't an illusion this time, she could tell. Eventually the feeling faded, and she took several long deep breaths.

"Naruto are you seriously _nuts?_! What the hell was that for?" he asked taking hold of her shoulders and forcing her to look him in the eye.

She vaguely remembered that he could read faces like the words in a book. She prayed to the gods that he could tell that this wasn't just...  
_...Just you going mad?..._

Her eyes widened as she began to twist, trying to see anyone acting out of the ordinary in the area surrounding them, on the roofs, in the cafe's, by the stalls, or just walking past. She couldn't see anything. Panic rising again, she turned back to Inoro.

"It wasn't me! I swear this isn't what it looks like Inoro! I didn't have a ch-"

A searing pain burned through her stomach, and a violent hacking engulfed her lungs. Removing the hand that had raised to her mouth without prompt, she stared at the red flecks staining it. The burning cough began to sear again, and both hands rose to her mouth.

_Blood spilled from his eye sockets the vacant holes staring at her, down into his hair._

What was happening? The fire in her lungs and gut was awful – it felt like the time she had woken up after turning four-tails. It was eating away even at her ribs, devouring her from her inside out. She crashed onto her knees, one hands keeping her from falling face first to the dirt track.

_There was another choking noise and she clung to the body, trying to keep as much blood from escaping as she could. There already so much lost... so much was coving the walls, her, the walls, her, and it didn't end..._

She could hear Inoro yelling at her, but barley. She removes the remaining hand from her mouth – blood leaked between her fingers and she began to shake. This couldn't be an illusion – Inoro was good with illusions, and he was freaking out, and the searing agony that gnawed into her bones themselves was too much to be part of someone's imagination.

_Feeling sick, her hands still a hold of his heat, she slowly turned her head towards those vacant eye sockets. Red and spinning, it sucked her gaze into it..._

She screamed as the ferocious burning in her gut intensified, and the bloody hand went to her stomach. She couldn't see straight, and her head was aching again. She crumpled to her side, still coughing, hearing people shouting.

_...I told you didn't I? I told you that you wouldn't be able to back out of this..._

"What's that supposed to mean? What did you _do_ to me?" she croaked, not caring that Inoro could hear every word she said – maybe he'd catch on. He'd have to hear her though, and her even a whisper tore at her throat.

_...There's a reason Demons don't break their promises, _jinchurki_ – you should have listened when the Kyuubi tried to warn you..._

The roaring. The roaring had been the Kyuubi? Something told her that she should have made a connection to the owner of the voice then, but she couldn't concentrate, the burning was in her mind now. Someone picked her up, and that was the last thing she remembered.

* * *

"What happened Shisui?" Tsunade asked plainly, slumping back into her chair wearily - maybe Naruto was right about her being too old for this Hokage gig. She really should start thinking about choosing a successor.

Shisui gently dropped the pile of folders he had amassed with a soft thud on the middle of her desk – he didn't look too good himself. He had been running around all week, trying to find a shred of evidence that suggested root was behind that horrible fire, but he hadn't had any notable success.

They had caught one of the people who had been supporting the barrier that kept almost the whole clan trapped in the flames, but he hadn't muttered even one word. Inochi had been working on him for a week, but nothing. If there was nothing by the end of the day, she would tell him to give Ibiki a call.

"From what we managed to pick up from the survivors, the fire started on the west side of the district, spread through the north and some of the south, and then it was stopped before it spread to the east. Aunt Uruchi told me she saw someone running in the opposite direction just before the barrier was raised, but she didn't get a good look at them..."

"Uruchi and Teiyaki are alright then?" she asked, perking up a little.

Shisui nodded.

"Uncle Teiyaki had to check into hospital for some smoke inhalation since he was one of the ones who helped out, but the fire didn't reach their area of town; the main house and the shrine are still in one piece too."

Well, that was _something_ to be thankful for; the main house held the original scrolls for many of Konoha's fire techniques, and that shrine… No, never mind the shrine or the main house; Itachi and Naruto had been through enough without loosing their grandparents too.

"What about the fire itself? I don't understand how the Uchiha clan could be killed by a fire - you've been using it since the clan wars, and something like this had never happened before... Even if Danzou had the information on the compound defences it shouldn't have caused this much damage..." Tsunade muttered, staring out of the window at the charred ruins on the other side of the village.

There was a scraping sound as Shisui shuffled his feet.

"I spoke to a few of the people who broke through the barrier and... Tsunade-sama, those flames were a lot like _Amaterasu_ – they disappeared with the barrier when we broke trough it though so we can't be sure, but they could see the people inside and... Tsunade-sama, _nothing_ stopped those flames..."

Tsunade but her thumbnail as the frown marring her face deepened.  
"What is that old buzzard _doing?_ I didn't even know there were any Uchihas in root..."

"There _aren't_ Tsunade-sama, not one – I don't know the specifics, but Fugaku never tolerated that man, and an Uchiha's first loyalty is towards the clan – Danzou didn't have _any_ of us. I can't be certain but I don't think Fugaku's father gave him room to move either, and he was his team-mate" Shisui informed her.

It made sense for Fugaku to keep Danzou's nose out of Uchiha business – his sole concern had been to keep Naruto's identity as closely guarded a secret as possible, and it made sense for his father - Kagami - to mistrust him too, but if there were no Uchihas in root, then how had Danzou gotten his hands on Amaterasu-like fire?

"Tsunade, I don't have a Mangekyo like Itachi, or like Kagami or Fugaku did, but I've _seen_ Amaterasu being used – you can't _replicate_ it, but it does vary sometimes from person to person. Itachi's seems a little thicker than Fugaku's, but Uncle Kagami's was... thiner, and easier to control, so is it a wild guess to think that the colour can vary too? If someone wanted to keep their identity quiet then..."

Tsunade nodded grimly; Shisui had a point, but even if that was true, that just raised more questions. Worryingly questions; Danzou, it appeared, had some very dangerous allies, and was getting much more active in his attempts to claim leadership of the village.

Tsunade didn't doubt that Madara was capable of disguising Amaterasu; he had defeated Fugaku with very little effort, and the damage he had done to Itachi was very nearly fatal, if Kiba hadn't been so quick on his feet...

Madara however, had grudges against the whole village – Danzou _knew_ that, so if they did have some sort of alliance, what was the aim of it? Naruto was the obvious answer, but something about that seemed off.

Danzou would never have agreed to that, especially if he knew that Naruto had the Sharingan – disgusting old buzzard he may be, but he was still loyal to Konoha above all else. He was just a bit more violent in his methods was all.

There had to be an angle that Danzou was exploiting, but what was it? And, even more worrying, what on earth was Madara gaining from it?

There was a knock at the door and Shizune came in, followed by a large toad with a seat on its back; Fukusaku sat in the chair, and his frog face was painted with a grave expression.

"Tsunade same, I'm sorry for the interruption, but Fukusaku-sama wished to speak with you... and there's a report just come in from the labs from Kiba and Sakura – I've flicked through it, and they've submitted a request to start work on creating a virus; do you want me to send it in later?" Shizune asked.

Well, that was some good news.  
"Send it in once I've done in here" she ordered.

Shizune left, quickly followed by Shisui. Once they were gone she turned to the tiny old toad.

"Fukusaku, please say you have some good news for me..."

The frog nodded.

"We have located Jiraiya's body – but more importantly, I want to start trying to decode the message he left for us. I would also like to speak with Naruto as soon as possible."

* * *

Itachi woke up blearily. He felt like... he didn't know what he felt like, but it certainly wasn't anything good. He could barley move without feeling something internal protest very insistently. He could move his head though, and turning to the left, he saw something yellow rather close by.

It took a few moments for his eyes to make it out – longer than usual. But adjust they did, and he recognised Ino's head immediately. She was not in her usual clothing, but an orange shirt and trousers. Even sleeping she looked completely dead on her feet, or side in this case.

She was going to kill him as soon as he healed; he hadn't really been thinking when he jumped in front of her like that. Oh well, it had worked, and he was still alive. That was even better. Even better than that, he didn't have to worry about which way his emotions were heading with her at all.

You didn't jump in front of deathblows like that for just anyone. Itachi wondered what king of pain medication the medics had given him – probably a lot. He didn't feel like sleep, but everything seemed a bit surreal. Ino stirred beside him, frowning as she was pulled from sleep.

Her eyes – bloodshot – blearily landed on his face, then she blinked, and they widened. Before he could say anything, she was sitting up off the bed and onto the floor. She pulled a set of medical seals from a large, portable set of storage trays, and began placing them on certain sections of the bandages covering him.

After hooking them up to a machine, her hands were engulfed in a greenish glow.  
"Don't you dare move; I have to check your chakra network and make sure it fused to the regenerated material properly…"

The hint of steel in her voice told him it would probably be wise to do exactly as he was told. Her hands hovered over the bandaged surrounding the entirety of his torso, flicking over the different wounds beneath his skin with her chakra, checking, fixing potential niggled that could have become problematic.

She bit her lip for a few moments, considering something, before turning back to the storage trays; she dug out various bottled and jars and dried plants, mixing them together, with a pestle and mortar, fissuring her chakra into the mixture. She finally added it to a jar of yellow liquid, closed the lid and shook it ferociously in her hand before unscrewing the lid once again.

She picked up a funnel, and crossed with the jar to the drip attached to his arm – she took down the bag and added the now bluish-green mixture to the liquid inside it. She shook the bag, mixing the contents again, till they turned a solid green. Only once she was satisfied with the bag did she look him in the eye.

She stared at him for a long time before turning towards the window.

"Don't you ever do that again – don't even _think _about it!" she hissed, crossing her arms and digging her nails into her skin in an attempt to keep herself from doing what she wanted to do – rage and scream.

"Stay out of trouble and I won't have to."

Oh bugger. He knew immediately after the words had left his lips that it had been the wrong thing to say. Ino's temper flared to heights that were not manageable by simply digging into her skin with her nails. One of her shaking hands curled silently into a fist, before crashing through the glass in the window. Her hand – absent of her usual mesh gloves that reached to mid forearm – was sliced by the impact, but she didn't seem to care.

She turned towards him, and instead of the rage he was expecting, there was something else he couldn't quite put a name to, but for some reason made him feel a little guilty.

"That's not what I mean you... You..."

She crossed to the bed, glaring at him; once he got a closer look at her face, he caught the considerable effort that was going into keeping her eyes water free. Or it could have been to keep her fists under control. That seemed like an equally high possibility.

"You... Do not... Do that to me again – get it? Your chakra network had to be almost entirely reconstructed - you were lucky there was enough of it left for the doctors to use to regenerate off of! You were burned from the inside out Itachi! You shouldn't be alive right now! You... You _don't do that _again!"

She started off calm, but by the time she was nearing the end of her explanation, she was perceptibly louder. She stared at him, red faced and breathless for a few moments, before flopping into a chair beside him, pointedly ignoring him. He found it safe to believe that Ino was not happy with him.

"Mm sorry..." he grumbled – the words took allot effort, and even then his throat felt horribly dry and raspy, like he had inhaled a large amount of smoke.

Her face remained stony for exactly three seconds, then it crumpled, the tears spilled, and before he could blink she had crashed into him – he groaned at the impact, but it dimmed as, somehow, she wormed her arms past the tangle of wires and tubes sticking out of him and around his neck, head buried in his shoulder.

His arms hadn't been injured in Madara's attack, and he managed to move them without too much discomfort , and wrap them around her shaking shoulders, one hand threading through her pale straw strands.

"Mm sorry."

* * *

_"KIBA- SEMPAI!"_

The call of his name jerked the doggish boy awake and toppled him from the stool he had been sitting on when he had fallen asleep mixing things in petri dishes. Shaking his head to clear the sleepy haze hanging over it, he stood up and headed for the intercom.

"What? This had better be good! I'm mixing viruses down here and-"  
_"Kiba-Sempai, get up to the ER now! Something's wrong with Boss! Inoro just brought her up here and she keeps screaming and yelling weird stuff and we can't stop the bleeding and-"_

"Udon, calm the fuck down and go get someone who knows what you're talking about!" he barked through the speaker. There was a squawk from the fourteen year old on the other end of the connection, and a scrabble as someone else came onto the speakers.

God, he hope he hadn't panicked that much as a Genin; this years batch were so squeamish it was unbelievable. He hated yelling at the kid like that, but Tsunade hadn't bothered to mollycoddle him and Ino when she was training them, and he had turned out just fine.

_"Kiba get your ass up here! Naruto's puking blood everywhere!"_ Inoro yelled down the speakers before cutting the connection short.

He stared at the intercom for a few moments before letting out a string of curses and darting out of the room. He paused only to pull off the mandatory white overalls and mask, dumping them in a chute that led to an incinerator, before darting up the stairs.

He entered chaos; Naruto seemed to have passed out, but the racking spluttering cough was still drawing blood through her body and out of her mouth. He rushed into the room, and started doing the perfunctory checks as Inoro blabbered about what had happened.

Kiba's mind was racing as he ran his hands over her stomach – as far as he had been aware of, Naruto was perfectly healthy. A little off-balance maybe, but healthy all the same. She hadn't received any serious injuries during her fight with Madara, and she didn't have any problematic genetic traits...

All right, maybe that wasn't quite true, but the problems the Sharingan was giving weren't physical ones. Checking her eyes, he immediately recoiled from the terrorizing chakra emitting from them. He had never felt it before, but he knew what it was immediately.

He frowned before engulfing his hand in a probing green glow, hovering over her lungs, and travelling towards her stomach – he had barley touched the boiling snarling chakra building there, but it swamped his chakra, racing up it and onto his arm.

He yelled as it scalded his arm, jerking his hand from her body almost immediately. He stared at the deep red burns all over his hands, then at Naruto; by now the blood had stopped gushing from her mouth, and her breath was coming in sharp quick strangles.

He was a good medic, but he knew nothing about how to handle the Kyuubi. He turned to the absolutely terrified snot-nosed glasses-wearing Genin who had been watching in horror – shit, did Konohamaru's lot know about the Kyuubi yet? Whatever, the kid could still be useful.

"Udon, go up to the third floor, find out what room Itachi Uchiha is in, and get Ino; drag her back down here by her hair if you have to, I don't care how you do it, just get her down here as fast as you can, then go up to the Hokage tower and get Tsunade-sama, and tell her what happened, including what happened to my hands" he ordered, trying to keep his voice calm.

There was a firm hand, and then there was just plain stupidity; Udon was scared out of his wits enough as it was with being barked at.

"But-"  
"Udon, get out of here! I'm not asking, I'm telling you to move!"

* * *

"Is it working?" Zetsu asked.

He frowned in concentration, pouring his chakra into the dried blood on the boomerang knife held in his hand.

"She's resisting... Quite well too," he informed him pointedly.  
"We said she would... _Maybe you did __underestimate her loyalty to the village _...It won't work" the two halves snapped back at him.

"I did no such thing Zetsu – her loyalty is what's going to make her give in to me in the end– this _is_ going to be a little harder than I expected though. I didnt expect her to have such a firm grasp on things..."

"If you take any longer you'll be discovered! ..._I__f you __haven't__ already,_" Zetsu muttered, one half to themselves.

He smirked at their doubt behind his mask confidently.

"That's the beauty of it – she's been having nightmares for months, screaming in her sleep, even attacking Itachi and that Yamanaka of his. Anything they hear her say to me will be passed off as a progression of that."

Zetsu continued to frown, not in disapproval, but worry.

"You're still taking too long! ..._S__he won__'t__ even be fit for extraction at this rate!"  
_"Zetsu the more you distract me, the harder it is for me to concentrate" he informed the plant man in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

Zetsu refrained from speaking, but continued to watch as he poured chakra into the dried blood, his mind racing out towards the blond demon holder in Konoha hospital.

* * *

She was standing in the dank murky waters of the boiler room before the giant cage; she could feel the gut shredding agony raging throughout her body, it wasn't like the other times she had found herself in her subconscious, before the Kyuubi's prison.

She had never felt anything here before, well, she had once, but that time was different. She doubled over in the water, blood spilling from her lips almost like a river, washing into the murky green.

"_I__ warned you! I __warned__ your litter mate!"_ the Kyuubi roared at her through the bars of it's cage; it's eyes lolled in it's head as the same pain that wracked her body tore through his.

"_I warned him – I told him to teach you, that you wouldn't survive if you met that accursed man!"_

Naruto looked up at the cage – warned her litter mate? Who the heck was that? As usual, the Kyuubi's choice of language was too archaic and animalistic for her to keep up with. Whatever, maybe it could explain some things.

"What's happening to me?

It was no use; the animal was too far gone into pain to be able to give a coherent reply. Something slipped in her mind, and she felt the animal's chakra invading her eyes. There had always been a burn when her eyes turned to the slits of the Kyuubi, but this, this was far beyond what she had felt before.

"Kyuubi! Tell me what's happening!" she screamed at the animal.  
"Really Naruto, I'm surprised at you; I thought you were more intelligent than that."

That voice...

Cold that had nothing to do with the water drowned her at the sound of that voice; ignoring the tearing pain, she slowly turned her head to look over her shoulder. Her eyes widened; she had known the voice sounded familiar since she had first heard it on the way back from Orochimaru's lair, but she had never been able to place it.

She felt like a fool as that lone eye stared down at her from behind that orange mask. It was him. Madara. Her ancestor. The man who had nearly killed her during the aftermath of the invasion. Why hadn't she remembered that voice?

"You... what did you do to me?" she snarled, gathering enough strength in her legs to back away from him, splashing through the water, looking for a corridor, any corridor, somewhere that would take her away from him before he could do any more damage.

"Nothing – this all your own doing" he replied calmly.  
"Bull... Bullshit!" she gasped, falling back in the water as another blood-draining spasm raked through her lungs.

"Not really – demons are stupid, savage creatures, but even _they_ have their own rules. One of those is to keep their word on pain of death. You tried to break that rule, so you have to face the consequences," he told her taking a step forward and staring down at her.

She could see that eye much more clearly; she could see the wrinkled lines from more than a hundred years of ageing surrounding it, the red of his iris and the black tomoe within that. She backed away from him, fear crawling amongst the biting pain inside her.

"I'm no demon!" she snarled, feeling her back hit something, a wall by the feel of things. The water was a little deeper here for some reason. Probably a tilt in the floor.

"You are a jinchurki – the Kyuubi _is_ part of you whether you like it or not. Why do you think hosts die when their demons are extracted? Stress on the body? Don't be _stupid!_ It is because the demon is tied to every fibre of your being – the extraction dosent even raise a hair on a normal human if they get too close," he snapped bending down in front of her as another cough ripped through her.

"So the same rules apply, huh? Do you think I _care?_ You... said it yourself! If I die, then I take that stupid fox with me! You're collecting them... As long as I keep ignoring you, I beat you on both terms!" she hissed back, keeping her eyes anywhere but that red eye.

He stared at her for a moment, before reaching out a gloved hand towards her; he lifted her by her neck and slammed her into the wall. The impact forced a fresh wave of pain from her, seeming to sandwich her between the burning inside her and the feel of her bones cracking against the wall.

She gritted her teeth to keep herself from screaming; she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of getting that from her, not now that she knew exactly who he was.

"You think your death will clean and simple? Pay attention to what your body is telling you! The Kyuubi is turning on you – you are going to _implode_ on yourself if you continue to run from me; do you think that the implosion of a _demon_ is going to be a quiet, noiseless affair?"

The calm, nonchalant tone had vanished; there was a sick pleasure, eagerness in his voice that guaranteed he wasn't lying. He wanted to destroy Konoha, down to the last stone, the last child. She didn't know what he was planning, but whatever it was, it was for the achievement of that one goal.

He wouldn't care if she kept refusing because it was still going to be to his benefit – it wouldn't be as permanent as what he had planned, but it would be enough to drive this twisted man into sick euphoria...

But it wouldn't be permanent! Konoha would rebuild itself, and when the truth came out, Itachi and Ino and Sasuke (because Ino and Itachi would kill Orochimaru before he could get his claws on him) would sent this sick bastard straight to the seventh level of hell.

"Why the hell... should I... do what you say just... because of that?" she gasped around the tight grasp on her throat – he had barley let her breathe.

"Why? Isn't that obvious? Because of Sasuke" he hissed in her ear.

* * *

"Ino! Thank god!"

Kiba's voice called out, but Ino was too busy staring at the blood spluttering from Naruto's mouth as she struggled for breath. She immediately moved towards the bed, her hands already glowing with chakra, but was pulled back sharply by her brother.

"Don't touch her! The Kyuubi did something to Kiba's hands when he tried!"

She jerked her head to stare at Kiba, and he held up his hands – the top few layers of skin had been completely burned away, and fragment hung from them in tatters as a medic performed the slow regeneration process. Her eyes widened and she turned back to Naruto.

"What happened to her? She was fine the last time I saw her!"  
"I don't know exactly, but she wanted to see dad when I ran into her... She kept trying to say something, but something kept stopping her – she started choking, then coughing, then the blood and then..."

Her brother turned to Kiba expectantly.

"The Kyuubi chakra seems to be attacking her from the inside out – it's building up where the seal is, and spreading – I got that much before the stuff chewed my hands to pieces..." kina finished, winching as the medic added a cleaning solution to his hands.

"What?"

But that made no sense! What did the Kyuubi stand to gain from attacking his own landlord? Ino had only seen the Kyuubi once, when she and her team-mates were training for the Chunin exams. She had seen it for all of two seconds before it pushed her out of Naruto's mind, but she had seen it heal Naruto plenty of times.

"That's stupid – if the Kyuubi kills Naruto, he goes with her... is something wrong with the seal?"  
"No, that's what's weird – I couldn't even feel it surfacing like it normally does when she uses chakra when I brought her here" Inoro answered quickly.

He frowned as something else crossed his mind.  
"Ino, why haven't you noticed it?"

Ino blinked.  
"Noticed what?"

"Her _head!_ God, when I ran into her it was giving me a migraine! _Me_! There was something really off about the waves I was picking up – there were two different sets of thoughts coming from her! Even I could pick up on that!"

"What? You didn't tell me that? I'd have told Udon to go get Inochi if you had!" Kiba complained wincing again as the medic slathered his hands in a burn cream.

"I didn't think it was important until I realised Ino couldn't pick it up! I can't feel it either now! One was hers but the other... it was sick... twisted... I don't know, but it was really, really bad. There was someone else in there Ino – I think that's what she was trying to say, but they kept cutting her off, and then..."

Ino stared at her brother then back at the bed – she sent out a probing wave of chakra, and felt the sear as the Kyuubi chakra mingled with it. It seared through her mind, but it was long enough for her to pick up the presence of someone else in there.

She drew back quickly, rubbing her temples as she recovered from the backlash.  
"He's right Kiba – someone's in there, and I'll bet anything they're the ones causing all thi-"

An unconscious scream cut her off, and Naruto twisted backwards on the bed, and more blood spurted from her mouth. Ino ran forward and pulled the zip of her dress, and pushed up the mesh shirt covering her torso – purple bruises were forming on it – internal bleeding. Lots of internal bleeding.

"Ino you have to go in there! Whoever's in there is trying to kill her, and he's succeeding! If the Kyuubi come back under her control, it'll heal the damage its done, but you need to go in there! I'll send for your dad, but we can't wait that long for him to get here!"

Kiba was right – Naruto had mere minuets, if that. She would be dead before he arrived. She had been reading up on the mind walk technique of her grandfathers when she wasn't changing Itachi's meds to keep herself distracted. If there was a time to use it... it was now.

She sat down on one of the chairs in the room, and tried to keep her mind relaxed as she cycled through the long array of seals; she hadn't really been in Naruto's mind before, she had just tried to posses her conscious. She had seen the Kyuubi, but it had been more like a... projection of some kind.

A warning sticker – this would be a complete trespass on her subconscious mind, where the Kyuubi was. This time it was the real thing she would be faced with, as well as whoever was intruding there. God, Naruto's head was about to get awfully crowded, and dangerous.

It was possible to get stuck in someone's mind if they weren't careful; she had seen her father use this only a few times, and he was one of the best interrogators in Konoha.

Ino took a deep breath and aimed her final seal towards Naruto.

"Yamanaka Forbidden Technique; Mind Walk!"

* * *

"Why the hell... should I... do what you say just... because of that?" she gasped around the tight grasp on her throat – he had barley let her breathe.

"Why? Isn't that obvious? Because of Sasuke" he hissed in her ear.

A chill went through her, and she felt a crack in her resolution to ignore everything this man told her. A disgusting crack of betrayal, but a crack all the same. Everything about this man screamed that he was not to be trusted, but no matter how much she stomped on it, caged it away, a tiny part of her was _listening_ to him.

"You'll do what I say because you know that you can't pass up an opportunity to save him from Orochimaru; you'll kick and scream until the latest possible moment, but you'll _never_ let this pass you by."

As if to enunciate his words, she spat the blood in her mouth at his lone eye, kicking her legs and clawing at the hand on her throat. The burning gnaw had spread, and she was sure that, even if he hadn't bee hold her against the wall as he was, she would not have been able to breathe very well.

She was right; he released her, and she splashed back to the water covered floor, coughing up a storm as she gasped for breath. The water was deeper, just below her armpits now and she stared at it, feeling the cold seep into her fire-riddled bones slowly.

It felt like her arms were slowly splitting apart now - she could actually feel the Kyuubi chakra seeping into them and splitting them open from the inside.

He bent down to stare at her again, and this time she didn't have the energy to try and pull his hand away as he turn her chin, forcing her to stare at that haunting red peering out from the shadows of his mask.

"_Stop__ resisting _girl, use your brain! If you do what I tell you, you'll get him back, and live to fight another day! If you refuse, you'll die - painfully, destroying half of Konoha in the process and Sasuke _will_ die, either by my hand or by that of your Hokage!"

He was right. He was right and she hated herself for agreeing with him, but when the options were stacked side by side, she'd only gain from helping him...

"You've already agreed – tentatively yes, but you _did_ – you do one thing for me, and that's it. You aren't bound to your word after that, and I hardly think you'll make the same mistake twice..."

He let go of her and stared at the rising water surrounding them.

"I think you know what will happen when this water hits the ceiling... you'd better hurry up and decide-"  
"Tell me… what it is..." she gasped hoarsely.

Even as she forced the words out the water that had bee creeping towards her chin slowed, and it did not escape his notice. He considered it, finding a way to answer her, chain her to him, and still keep her oblivious.

"Nothing... _permanent,_" he replied in an offhand manner – she knew where it came from; he had her twisted round his finger, and worst of all, she had willingly walked right into his trap.

"Alright... I... I agree..." she mumbled, pulling her knees up to hide her face. The burning in her gut was already dying away to a warm ember.

He bent down and ruffled the back of her hair, pulling some the hair from her bunches.  
"There... you see how _easy_ it is?" he murmured, almost soothingly – patronizingly.

"Sasuke will be back in Konoha before the month is out; after that, it'll be up to you to keep your end of the bargain, but… I think you know what will happen if you try to run again." he informed her, before a splashing noise and the call of her name drew his attention.

The minuet he disappeared, she let out a choked sob; she knew that whatever he wanted her to do, it was another twisted game that would, ultimately, lead to Konoha's ruin, however small it was. She had still walked into it though. She had betrayed so many people by doing that.

Sasuke couldn't ever find out, nor Ino, or Itachi. They all thought she was strong willed enough to resist anything; her nightmares were just minor obstacles that would fade once they found Sasuke. She had no idea how she was going to hide this, but she had to.

She had to if she was going to see Sasuke – it didn't take a genius to figure out what he would do if she didn't do as instructed. Dear god, what had she just done?

"Naruto!"

There was the splashing of water, now up to mid calf, before she felt Ino hovering in front of her, her hands on her shoulders trying to tug her into motion.

"Naruto, you have to wake up! The Kyuubi is getting spazzical – come on you have to wake up! You're going to die if you don't! The Kyuubi turned on you! Naruto please, I can't loose another team-mate!"

Oh god, if only she knew... if only she knew. The guilt was horrible, and she hadn't even answered to his summons yet. She had to say something... something to make the guilt more bearable. There had to be something right?

"I didn't mean it Ino... I didn't mean to... I didn't want to..."

She could feel Ino staring at her in confusion.

"Didn't mean...? Naruto, are you talking about Kabuto? Do you mean when he made you fight Sasuke? Was it him that was here?"

Kabuto? Oh... of course. Kabuto had made her attack Sasuke, then Ino herself and the rest of her team at Tenshi bridge. Ino had just given her the explanation she had lacked.

Her stomach churned, sick with revulsion at the lie she was stepping into, and then she nodded.

* * *

_**For some reason, I feel like I'm getting close to what I call the Kkyuubi Cliche with this chapter. I've kept it as... hmm. I don't know how to explain. Most of the stories I've read with the promise thing are just taken as normal - naruto make promise, keeps it. I wanted to get the influence of the Kyuubi on Naruto more pronounced though, so I guess thiss is just an exxaggeration of that.**_

_**For those wondering, naruto isn't going to grow a pair of stupid ears and fuzzy tails, nor summon foxes. There will be nothing to do with Inari or anyone else from Japanese folklore surrounding Kitsune; some will come up later on, but it is very vague, and there's only a little portion of it. Kyuubi isn't going to start calling Naruto 'Kit' either (that really bugs me). Sorry to burst any bubbles, but it had to be done.**_

_**I loved writing Madara! I love him to bits and pieces! He should have his own Gaiden like Kakashi or something... **_  
_**Should be some sasuke next chapter. If you liked, press the button in the center of the screen below this text and follow the instructions!**_  
_**:D**_

_**Nat.**_  
_**xxx **_


	14. Act XIV: Control

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

* * *

**ACT II: SCENE XIV  
~ CONTROL ~**

* * *

Ino shivered as she half dragged Naruto past the giant cage in which the Kyuubi resided; apparently it was feeling somewhat drained from attacking its own host, voluntarily or not. She was glad the thing was a sleep, just so she wouldn't have to deal with it.

She had bigger problems, like getting out of this creepy place – she had seen the inside of her own mind once, and it was a lot better than Naruto's. Hers was a nice field of flowers. There was no sun, nor any stars or anything, but the flowers glowed, giving off a nice soothing light.

This was just creepy, and she kept seeing things in the water, or she thought she did. She had found a corridor full of drawers, one dripping red ice into the water below it – two guesses what that was. Itachi hadn't been joking when he told her Naruto was a mess.

Still, creepy aside, she had to get out...

The scroll with the technique on it hadn't been exactly clear on that part; it had said something about waking people up, but Naruto didn't seem to be making much progress on that – she could barley walk. There were bruises forming on her neck, and her hands were covered in dried blood.

She was going to skin Kabuto when she caught hold of him! How had he got into the village to do this anyway? Or had he even needed to? He had proved that he could activate the kyuubi-controling cursed seal he had injected her with at any time at the bridge... could he do it from any location?

Ino took a step down another corridor, one that had not been the route she used on the way in. she froze at the entrance, feeling bile rising her throat. It was horror. That was the only way she could describe it. Pure horror. At first she had thought all the cabinets were red, but they were white.

They were just so thickly stained by blood, old and fresh, that they looked that way. A horrid stench rose from this boxes, almost rotten. She felt something brush against her leg in the water and glanced down... She screamed and dashed backwards through the water with her unconscious companion to the safety of the creepy green water.

That was a _head!_ A head with its eyes plucked out and contorted in pain. She hadn't taken much of a look at the face, but she didn't care who it belonged to. That should not be inside someone's mind! She had to get out of this creep-fest. Soon... but Naruto wouldn't wake up, and the scroll hadn't exactly explained how to get out without waking the host up.

There was a sudden clang of a door opening somewhere, followed by a swirl in the water, and then she felt the relief.

_'Dad!'  
'Ino where are you?'_

_'Dunno; I was at the Kyuubi cage, it wasn't really hard to find, but this place keep changing! I walked in on some gory creepy stuff a minuet ago... this place is _creepy_ dad, really creepy. I keep seeing stuff in the water... is this normal?'_

_'It varies, but the general set up is the same – stay where you are. Don't go near the gory stuff at all. You need at least five years more study before you can even think of going in there'  
_"I wasn't planning on it..." Ino muttered to herself, pulling on Naruto's arm as she began to slip from her shoulder.

She waited for only a few minuets before her father rounded the corner, looking a little alarmed.  
"Dear god, this place is a mess..." he muttered, taking Naruto from her.

"Kiba told me what happened before you came in – did you find out who was in here?" he asked setting off down a completely different corridor to the one he had appeared from.

Ino shook her head.

"I heard them, but they were gone when I got to the Kyuubi cage – the water kept rising for a while, and it was really cold! Naruto was mumbling for a while and I think she was talking about Kabuto but..."

Her father nodded, giving the dimly lit corridor a disapproving look. He turned again, and they opened out onto a large square room. There was a corridor Ino recognised as the one where the bloody ice was extending off to one side. Her father crossed the watery floor to the other side of the room with Naruto.

There was an oily looking ladder leading to a metal hatch in the ceiling. Ino stared at the corridor with the bloody ice for a few moments before following her father up the ladder.

* * *

Zetsu stared at the pink haired girl through the window from their woody camouflage – they needed to get closer if they were going to know what kind of antidote Konoha had come up with – they needed to know what they were to replicate, but they couldn't get close enough...

They searched the room, looking for something they could use as a watching post, they could get through the walls without being seen easily enough – their presence my have triggered a search, but they wouldn't find them. They never did.

Their eyes landed on a potted palm in the corner of the room. They sunk into the tree, moving along the branches and towards the wall. They sunk into the wall, and then the floor, watching through the surface as they made their way towards the plant.

Through the pot, into the soil... perfect. Now they could use their spores; careful to avoid wild fluctuations, they channelled some of their chakra through the plant's leaves, minuscule powdery yellow orbs burst from the veins, and they directed them towards the pink haired girl.

They hovered unnoticed around her – they were barley bigger than a grain of sand – and observed as she fiddled with something under a microscope. A few drifted towards the notes on the table she worked at, glanced at contents in the petri dished and needles and droppers and vials.

A blare from the intercom system drew her away from filling several hypodermics with a milky, almost clear substance, and one of the spheres closed on the microscope's eyepiece, whilst another examined the hypodermics. Moments later the girl darted from the room.

They left the spores to their investigations for a few more minuets, before pulling them back; as the information filtered back to them, intrigue was almost draw from them.

A virus? How clever. They wouldn't have thought of that themselves. Now that they knew what Konoha was using, their presence was not necessary – they would be able to make the virus themselves.

They withdrew from the plant, back through the floor, the wall, down the tree to the earth below, and made their slow way out of the barrier once again, and out of Konoha.

* * *

When Ino woke up, Tsunade was hovering over Naruto with Kiba and Sakura – she presumed the blonde woman had healed Kiba's hands for him – and quickly stood up to join them.

"This has gone too far Tsunade-sama; we need to take precautions regarding..." her father glanced around the two other medics in the room and coughed pointedly.

"Just say it dad, Kiba already knows, and Sakura knows that there's something go on – she isn't going to tell anyone" Ino prompted, laying her hands on Naruto's left arm beside Sakura; the pink haired girl looked a little shocked but nodded to the man as if to reassure him.

Tsunade paused before giving a single nod before going back to repairing Naruto's lungs. The Kyuubi was very slow, perhaps sensing that too much help would be as bad as what had already been inflicted on his container.

"Fine; we need to seal her Sharingan away, fast. If she keeps living through her more... troubling memories every night the way is she's going to go mad."

Sakura's face was blank as she processed the new information, then her eyes widened, but she held her question and concentrated on healing, even as she listened with rapt ears.

"Ino already told us that it evolved again during their last mission, and it's been sealed away once already... that is not a normal Sharingan – it isn't a Mangekyo, but she can use Amaterasu as well as Itachi, and Fujin almost as well as Fugaku could before he died, and that has not gone unnoticed by Madara"

"Madara? Wait, you mean _Madara Uchiha?_ But he's _dead!" _Sakura protested…  
"No, he's still alive; he was the one who organised the Kyuubi attack, and Akatsu-"

"But that's _impossible!_ I mean it! I thought you _knew!_ We finished the autopsy on the body Ino and Naruto found in Sunagakure, and the DNA tests were a match with his! We didn't think we'd find anything, but we ran it through the system anyway! Madara Uchiha is a rotting _corpse!" _Sakura protested again, drawing wide eyes from the adults in room.

Ino's eyes had also widened.  
"But... if Madara's in the morgue, then who was that who attacked us?" she asked.

She received no answer, instead Tsunade changed the subject.

"I think your right Inochi, but let's leave it till she's recovered from this first... I still have to tell her about the toads, and I want her to have every advantage if she goes to Mt. Myoboku – she_ needs_ that training now..."

Ino was missing something, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what. She let it drop as she watched her father stare at Tsunade in disbelief before starting his argument again.

"We can't keep putting it off Tsunade-sama! Her Sharingan broke through the seal Fugaku placed on it when she was a baby already! Fully mature! Now she's using Mangekyo techniques _without_ a Mangekyo! Damn it, she shouldn't even _have_ a Sharingan in the first place! Danzou's already moving, and if he gets wind of this-"  
"I_ Know_ that Inochi!"

"Tsunade-sama, this... whoever it is behind that mask knows exactly what Naruto's eyes are capable of! We know that he organised the Kyuubi attack! He probably killed Kushina under Jiraiya's nose, he did kill Fugaku in front of mine, and I wouldn't be surprised if he killed her mother too! We never did find her after the attack, but the point is none of them were pushovers! He has been manipulating all of us, and were_ letting_ him do it!"

Ino stared at her father; he was usually so calm, but he was nearly shouting at Tsunade. He had a good point though – when it was put in front of them like that, it was obvious that that masked weirdo had been aiming for an Uchiha Jinchuriki.

"You think the_ Kyuubi _is what's making it so strong? That's rubbish – demons have nothing to do with bloodlines. The Sharingan is capable of _controlling_ the Kyuubi anyway – the Kyuubi wouldn't make something that would be to its _disadvantage_" Tsunade replied.

Inochi slumped as he ran his hands over Naruto's right arm, making certain he had missed nothing, before picking up again, sounding a little more desperate.

"I don't think so either, but the _how_ doesn't really matter any more; the fact is, Naruto's Sharingan is too dangerous to be left alone, and I think Itachi will agree! This isn't just a matter of _nightmares_ anymore! Kabuto came too close to killing her today, all because of her sharingan, and he's just being an oppurtunist! We have to seal it away!"

Tsunade stared at him pensively for a few moments as she pushed chakra beneath Naruto's skin.

"Is she really that close Inochi?" she asked, very quietly.  
"_Inches!_ Mere inches; I'm surprise she isn't beyond help already."

Ino stared at her father – she had been inside Naruto's mind and she could tell it wasn't a healthy one, but surely it wasn't _that_ bad? Naruto had a few problems, sure, but she was fine! It wasn't just those nightmares that she had put up with!

There were other things - the villagers for one, and all the other pressures that came with being the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. When you threw a few nightmares on top of all that, was it any wonder some of her screws were a little loser than those of someone else, someone normal?

"Naruto's a _very_ good actor Ino – I doubt she notices it herself, but she only shows you what she wants you to see. You know her more than most, but there were things I walked past I doubt she'll ever tell you about." her father told her, not needing to pick the thoughts from her head – they were clear on her face along with those of Sakura and Kiba.

"I don't know – if that man is as involved as he seems to be, she's going to need it" Tsunade persisted.  
"It doesn't have to last her entire life – I get the feeling we'll be lucky to get a_ year _at this point – it just has to be long enough for her to... to get some stability back."

Sakura, Ino, and Kiba, all snorted.

"It's not _stability_ she needs – it's_ Sasuke_. I'd bet Akamaru that once Sasuke gets back here, this will all blow over in a month or so" Kiba grumbled, finishing his section of Naruto's arm and slumping into a chair. Sakura simply nodded.

"He's right – Naruto will do anything if she thinks it'll get Sasuke back. Anything. And it won't be until he _is_ back that she stops…"

Ino had seen her do just that; before Sasuke had been taken by the snake, Naruto would never have though of using the Kyuubi chakra to torture people the way she had the first time they invaded one of Orochimaru's bases.

But now... it had almost been like she was... venting her anger on those people, and it hadn't raised a hair on her neck.

It had taken Sasuke's arrival just to get her attention away from the last one, and Ino still found herself thinking back to when Naruto had fallen from the sky before reaching the water country base.

Naruto had never properly explained how she had led the straight to that place with such confidence when she had never been to water country in her life.

It had been one of the few countries she had avoided with Jiraiya simply because of the tenuous relations between Konoha and Mizu, and yet Naruto had known exactly where to go. She had even told her the directions hadn't come from a very reliable source...

Naruto was treading into murky waters looking for Sasuke so obsessively – oh, she didn't fault her for it. She was just as eager to find her missing team mate, and she would just as easily do the same if it was Itachi but... she still worried when ever the topic was brought up.

"Ino, you know the chances of that even if you don't say them" her father frowned.

Ino mirrored his expression.  
"I know I do..." she replied, biting her lip to hold back the rest of her sentence: _'and so does Naruto...'_

Tsunade fixed her a speculative gaze, before flicking her eyes over Kiba and Sakura as she came to a decision of some kind.

"All right, Sakura, Kiba, get back to work on that virus as soon as you can – once that's done, we'll send Juugo out with team seven – he's already given Ibiki the locations of all the bases he knows about, and he knows where Orochimaru is likely to have gone"

"I already finished it – we just need to administer it to Juugo. I was about to do that when Kiba called me up here to help out" Sakura informed her.

"Good- get that done then. And give Naruto a dose as well – it should get rid of that drug Kabuto put in her veins and stop this from happening again."

Tsunade turned to Ino and fixed her with a firm gaze.  
"Ino, you and Itachi _have_ to keep a close eye on her; don't let her out of your sight – and get her to tell you exactly what happened today once she wakes up. We need to know exactly what he did, and she's the only one who knows the truth."

Tsunade turned to Inochi.  
"We'll have to talk with Itachi – until she turns eighteen, he's her guardian now, and he has the last decision on this"

Ino tried not to think about the meaning of those words as she kept her chakra flowing, knitting the chars and tears in her team-mate's organs back together.

* * *

Sasuke woke up with a start; the deep scratches on his hand he had received at the valley were stinging ferociously, and cold sweat dripped down his back in rivulets.

He glanced down at the white marks on his wrist; they were barley visible against his own pale skin, but he could feel them. They felt like... like the Kyuubi chakra. He vaguely remembered this had happened before, but it still didn't make sense.

He could only assume that they were picking up the Kyuubi chakra god knows how many miles away, like the way his grandfather's knee could always tell when bad weather was coming. The only difference was that this so not a bad knee, and that there wasn't any kind of weather bad enough for it to pick up.

Which ever way he tried to reason it, he was always led back to the Kyuubi, and that meant Naruto; she could be being attacked, that was plausible, but the only people he could imagine her using the Kyuubi against was the Akatsuki, and that didn't exactly ease the sudden nerves

There was also the possibility that the seal was weakening, or had broken, but that was even worse. That was _catastrophically_ worse. There was also extraction... he didn't even want to _think _about that possibility. There really wasn't anything he could think of for its use that was... not destructive in some way.

_Something_ had gone wrong, and he couldn't do anything about it; if Naruto had simply lost control, he could probably be able to try talking her out of it, or failing that, he could try using his Sharingan on her. If the Akatsuki had come knocking, he just had to... chop their arms off or something. Or their heads, that would probably be better.

He had to admit, there was nothing he would be able to do if the seal itself was up shit creek, he understood seals a little bit, but not nearly enough – they were all over the place, and he liked organisation. If he had understood them, he wouldn't be in this mess.

And as for extraction... well, that just _wouldn't happen_. The bastards would be suffering from a severe case of_ dead _before they could even touch her if he had any say in the matter. Well, maybe he'd let Itachi help with that – the last time he had tried that by himself it hadn't ended so well.

Itachi was a protective brother – a bit too protective sometimes, but it was better than being _oblivious._ He was certain Itachi would be just as opposed to the notion. Ino would be spitting mad if they tried, and Naruto... she'd probably go nuts.

Even if they did manage to catch her (something that had been hard for him even when they were Genin), they'd have to drag her clawing and biting and roaring to that stupid cave of theirs. She had even more incentive than the rest of them to avoid it.

He rolled over on the bed and stared at the ceiling - now that Orochimaru wasn't nearby he could think a little more clearly; he really should have considered the distances involved first, but what was done was done. Still, the month wasn't out yet. Orochimaru seemed to have a flair for the dramatic, so he was fairly certain he wait until the exact end of the month before trying to take him over.

There was still time; he hoped to god someone with decent skill was working on Juugo – Ino seemed to know what she was doing. She'd had a med pack on when he last saw her, and if he knew Ino, she was likely to be very bull headed in her training methods.

He wouldn't be surprised if she had bullied Tsunade herself into teaching her – Naruto he knew had gone with Jiraiya for a while, thanks to Fuu. She knew seals, always had, and he was the only one in the village with a mastery in it. Itachi had a grade 8, but that wasn't even close to Jiraiya's level.

But there wasn't much else he knew about what was going on in Konoha – sometimes the guards talked about other villages, but they weren't useful for much since it was all hearsay from other henchmen of Orochimaru.

He hated the waiting – that was the worst of it. He was stuck here while time ticked on. Even throwing the small gritty rocks from the floor didn't really help with the frustration anymore. Fuu was very understanding, and he applauded her general ability to put up with him when he snapped.

She was the only other person on this level – well, there was that gibbering guy next door, but he was clearly insane, and didn't really make for good conversation – so it was Fuu who he tended to lash out at. He'd have to get her a rare fizzy juice or something once they got out for putting up with him.

The clang of the door jerked his attention, and blood drained from his face. Was the month over? Had Orochimaru just decided to perform the transfer ritual early? He tugged at one of the stones in the wall; he had been loosening it for months for this purpose.

Just because he was locked up and had no chakra didn't mean he was utterly defenceless; maybe if he kept braining his henchmen, he'd be able to get out while the barrier was down, and hide somewhere nearby until the seal... died, or something. He hadn't really _thought_ that far ahead.

He heard footsteps, quiet ones and he clung to the darkness in the back of his cell, hugging the wall and gripping the rock – about two hands width, with a slight wedge on one end – till his hand was shaking and knuckles were white.

He frowned as he listened; Orochimaru usually had heavier steps, so did Kabuto. That purple-haired woman who brought the food down was lighter though. There wasn't anyone else who came down here, so who was it? He felt a wild hope building for a moment, but shook it away.

Naruto would have barged in, there was too little noise. Even if she did _try_ to be quiet, she and Ino would probably be shouting out by now. And the more he listened, the more it sounded like two people, or someone dragging something.

What was going on? Before he could find out, a thick, chokingly sweet scent seemed to fill the entire hallway, leaking into his cell in thin greenish-blue wasps. He held his breath for as long as he could – breathing in foreign substances like this was one of the first things taught in the academy – even going so far as to drop the rock and cover his mouth and nose with his hands.

Unfortunately, as was so often the case in battles of this nature, he was betrayed by his own body; the need for oxygen instead of carbon dioxide was eventually overwhelming, and as he breathe in the air, the bluish gas that had by now completely filled the cell invaded his mouth and nose.

The sweetness was cloying – sickly cloying. But there was something else more worrying; he was beginning to feel heavy, drowsy even. He kept blinking, trying to keep himself awake, but every time his eyelids lowered it became that much harder to open them again.

He felt his legs give way beneath him as his eyes drooped for the final time.

* * *

They waited calmly as the anaesthetic gas billowed from the tips of their spines; the boy put more of a fight than others. No wonder Orochimaru liked him – he always enjoyed beating stubborn ones, _sadistic freak._

Still, they hadn't expected the boy to hear them – it made things just a trifle more interesting. Once the resounding thud of unconsciousness echoed from the cell, the fumes issuing from their spines began to fade. He was completely out now, and would be for several hours.

They slowly sank into the stony earth floor, sinking beneath the barrier – it extended into the earth, but Orochimaru's seals always had been shoddy work. Really, for an S-Class rouge, he didn't pay attention to some of the important details. The man was too fixated on techniques.

They rose and stared at the rock at the boy's side, and the hollow in the wall; oh, yes, he was a fighter alright. He probably had nice chewy muscles. Alas, the old goat didn't want him to eat the boy, but lend some quiet assistance. Such a pity... the tough ones were so good for them to sink their teeth into.

They thought this plan was pointlessly time consuming, but the man was insistent. It wouldn't work if he didn't have the right eyes, he said, and this was his idea, so they complied. He was the brain – they were just in it for the food, not that they had actually gotten their teeth _into_ a Jinchuriki yet.

They both sighed and stared at the boy slumped on the floor; maybe once the old bag got his precious eyes and the demons were captured he would let them eat this one, and his Jinchuriki.

They picked up the boy, dropped him onto the bed, and began to examine the seals on his neck; shoddy, they sneered, _very shoddy_. Orochimaru was living up to his talents alright. They probably only a few grades beyond the Kyuubi girl, if that.

With comparative ease, they removed the restraints, and then focused on the cursed seal itself – now that was a bit more of a challenge. It seemed Orochimaru wasn't a _complete_ idiot, but still a shoddy one. They pulled up their sleeves and concentrated some chakra on their teeth, elongating the two rows to sharp point.

They bent over and bit down, taking care not to chew on the boy's neck, despite their wishes. Their tongue, a leech like thing, began to drink up the blood; _bleeargh._ It was horribly gritty, dirty almost. Not pleasant at all. This was why they didn't eat those bodies of the sound four – the cursed seal absolutely _ruined_ the taste.

Wrinkling their nose, they concentrated on sucking out as much of the contaminated blood as possible. The less there was in his bloodstream, the better. After perhaps a half hour of sucking a much of the contaminate blood as was safe to do so, they dropped the limp body back with a snarl of revulsion.

Well, at least they wouldn't actually need to eat for a day or so; they gave him a quick check to make sure he was still breathing – the old wart would pull them from their leaves if the boy died by accident. Satisfied by the light flutter of breath from his mouth, they removed a scroll from the inside pocket of their cloak.

Brushing their black thumb over a few of the seals, a needle and several tubes of fluid emerged; selecting one vial of a thin, almost clear, cloudy liquid, they attached it to the needle. Turning the boy's neck till they could get a good shot at the marking there, they rammed the needle directly into one of the marks and deposited the contents into the unconscious boy's bloodstream.

The boy began to twist on the bed, tossing his head from side to side, veins burning blue under his almost grey skin – maybe they had taken a little too much blood. It was a good thing they had some replenishers with them. They released a little more gas from his spines as they watched – they didn't think the boy would wake up, but it never hurt to be doubly certain.

The skin marred by the cursed seal began to bubble, and blister into pus-filed welts that exploded in a burst of dirty white foam. They watched in satisfaction as the black marks faded, and the convulsions stilled. The murky foam continued to leak from the wounds as they injected another vial, this time into his vein – it would help his enzymes rebuild the way they were naturally intended to while starting the process of replenishing his blood.

Eventually, the frothy flood that had leaked all over the boy's neck, back and shirt stopped, and they wiped the stuff away. A green glow engulfed their white hand, murkier than the usual glow, and they began to repair the torn blister on his now curse free skin.

Once the skin was healed – well almost, they couldn't heal that scar that had been behind the mark – they took out an ink and brush from the scroll, and began to redraw the swirling mark and seals with it. As they worked, the old geezer himself stepper through the wall, and gave his descendant an appraising look.

"I presume it worked?"

"It works... _It seems Konoha medics are above the usual standards this year..._" they replied, moving on to replicate the seal that had placed on to control the curse mark itself.

"Good. Once you finish, I'll start linking up the illusion to the beetle girl's mark"

They cast their gaze to their opposite cell where Orochimaru's Jinchuriki lay slumbering – she would probably be good to eat. Orochimaru had complained about the demon messing his seal up for ages. They had been relieved when the man finally shut up about it.

"Can you do that without waking him? …_We don't wake people up – we make them sleep. Usually permanently._"  
"All I need are his eyes – as long as I can see them I can place the resurgence on him"

"Are you sure this will work? …_He's completely dead to the world right now – he doesn't remember._"  
"His mind may not, but his body will. All I have to do is look for the right memories of pain; really, I'm surprised by my own intelligence sometimes..."

Zetsu ignored him, and finished drawing the copies of the additional seal Orochimaru had placed on the boy. Satisfied with his handiwork, he pushed a little chakra into them. They would disappear once the goat's illusion was in place.

After injecting some more of the blood replenishers, he gathered up his things and placed them back in the scroll. Replacing it in his pocket, he began to sink into the floor.

"Clean up the mess ..._We need a decent meal to get rid of this foul taste"_ they told him, before disappearing from the cell.

* * *

"Do you think Itachi will let Tsunade seal it away? Naruto's Sharingan I mean...?" Sakura asked from the other side of the table in the hospital staff room.

Ino looked up and frowned in thought for a few seconds before shaking her head.

"Not if Naruto doesn't want him to, and I don't think she'll want that – she uses it a lot when she trains, and with this new boost... it's too valuable for her to let Tsunade seal it away" she replied, pouring some tea from the kettle Sakura had just place on the wooden surface.

"This is fucked up. Really,_ reeeeeaally _fucked up" Kiba muttered from the tabletop.

"It is a bit weird... doesn't any of it weird you out just a little bit? I mean, I understand and everything, but... he's her_ brother_... that's just..." Sakura made a face, and sipped her own tea.

"There was a little bit at first, but then there was so much _crap_ piled on top of it that was more worrying that it's virtually gone" Ino admitted, taking another sip of her tea.

Honestly, it hadn't really bothered her as much as it should have, the whole sibling thing. Everything had happened too fast for her to really let it sink in. Naruto eyes cropping up, the mess of the chunin exams, finding out all that stuff about her parents, then Sasuke... there just hadn't been armament for her to think about it.

The idea of lusting after _her_ twin repulsed her; even if she had been unaware of things at first, like Naruto, she would probably have been sick but... Naruto hadn't had a family before. Well she had, but Kushina had died when she was pretty young - Ino had never met the woman.

She had become friends with Naruto after she had died, and her own mother started to baby-sit her on occasion. Fugaku hadn't helped things by keeping quiet but trying to make sure she had a good relationship with Itachi and Sasuke, and then of course she and Itachi had meddled when Naruto and Sasuke began to dance around each other.

Then the wave mission – she hadn't seen or heard what had happened inside that ice dome, she had been to busy keeping that idiot bridge builder from getting too near Zabuza (she was proud to say she had gotten a good stab at his arm with a kunai), but whatever had gone on before Sasuke had been encased to his eyeballs in ice had cemented it - it had been the first time she had used the Kyuubi.

And then Ichiraku's. If there was a moment she could pick out (in her life time, since that masked freak had obviously been plotting for years) as the one where everything began spiralling out of control, it was that one.

Any semblance of normalcy had vanished after that, but Naruto had clung to it. Those stupid eyes! That had been the beginning of all of this – once she had evidence that she came from somewhere, Naruto had lost all care about what was right, or normal.

People often said Uchiha were loyal to their family before the village, and Naruto was she was the most loyal one of the lot. Now she was paying the price.

Ino didn't know just how right she was.

* * *

Sasuke woke up with one of the worst feelings he had ever had in his life; he was glad Orochimaru didn't come down very often, because he had a fever.

A fever or any kind of illness meant a trip to Kabuto, and he hated those; Kabuto took a great delight in explaining the intricacies of how he had drawn the Kyuubi chakra from Naruto, had turned her against himself, against Ino and Itachi and forced four tails from her.

But he had another reason this time – the longer he could let whatever illness that had come over him in the night fester, the longer Orochimaru would have to wait before he could kick him out of his own body.

Still, he hoped he would have to keep it up for too long; sleep was impossible – his blood either boiled in his veins, of he was so cold that his breath crystallized in the warm stuffy air of the cells - and he fazed in and out of awareness for three days instead.

He felt horribly weak, like the blood had drained from his body. Even when he did manage to move, his bones protested at the smallest of movements. And then just like that, after three days, it was completely gone. It was as if it had never been there.

The hallucination wasn't fun either – he kept smelling something horrifically sweet, but no matter how many time he asked his fellow prisoner, she adamantly told him there was no such smell – yet it continued to clog his throat and nostrils.

Fuu, for her part, had been beside herself for those three days, but she understood the significance of drawing illness out, and had warned him when the food guy came. He had just pretended to be asleep when he shoved the trays through and removed them.

If he was confused by the untouched trays, he didn't tell Orochimaru. Or if he did, Orochimaru thought nothing of it; he had done the same thing when he had first arrived, and had more freedom.

Oddly, by the time he finally came around, he felt better, stronger even, than he had in what felt like... years.

* * *

Naruto knew the moment she woke, but her eyes did not open. She didn't want to wake up. If she stayed asleep, maybe she could pretend things were still normal.

"I know your awake Naruto"

Slowly, she opened her eyes and turned to stare at the man seated in a wheelchair beside her bed.

"When did you wake up?" she asked, rubbing the crust of sleep from the corner of her eyes as she tried to sit up – she still felt the effects of the Kyuubi chakra attacking her system; it was remarkably different from actually using it.

"Three days ago – the medics weren't happy when I told them to hurry things along, but..."

But she had turned into a human paper bomb; Itachi had forced himself to heal more quickly because of her. She had been through the process, and accelerated healing had its drawbacks. Wasn't this the icing on the cake?

"...things weren't going _well_."

Itachi had no idea just how _'not well'_ things were going; she felt like she was going to burst any second from the heavy press of guilt, but that wasn't even the half of it! She had made a deal with Madara!

He had suckered her into it again! He had turned everything upside down, and then made it sound like she still had a chance to keep control of things – he had managed to make her believe that _helping him_ would be in her best interests! How could helping _him_ be in her best interests?

How could that _ever_ have been in her best interests? Why had she _believed_ him? She had never thought herself capable of doing something like this. _Never._ She was completely out of her mind.

She needed to stop; she was not in control at all. She hadn't been for a _long time_, and it hadn't mattered before! But _this_, this was one step too far!_ Something_ had to go...

"Ino wasn't too clear on what happened, but from what we managed to figure out, someone was inside your head. Ino thinks it was Kabuto, but we need to hear from the horse's mouth Naruto"

He waited for her to say something patiently. She wrestled with herself for barley a moment; she felt sick with revulsion for her own actions, but she completely ignored the opportunity to try and say something. Itachi was smart – he would have figured it out if she had tried hard enough, she knew it, but she ignored.

_'Gods of fire, forgive me…'  
_"I fell asleep... I fell asleep, and I forgot my meds..." she mumbled, not daring to look him in the face.

What was she doing?

"...I don't know how he got in my head but... that drug... he did something to the Kyuubi and..."

She turned her head into the pillow she was slumped against – Itachi would know something was wrong if he saw the guilt literally staining her face. God why hadn't she _listened?_ Ino had told her, Itachi had told her, and even _Shikamaru_ had told her she was heading in the wrong direction! Why hadn't she_ listened?_

"...he said... he said Orochimaru didn't need any interruptions when the transfer started!"

Why was it so _easy_ to lie like this? Surely it should be harder than this? He skin grew colder with every word from her mouth, but they still kept on coming. It was so _simple..._ had he planned this too? Had he manoeuvred everything to make it so her excuse was already out in the open for her, just handing in the air, waiting to be grabbed?

"When I woke up, I tried going to tell Tsunade, or Inochi, or someone in charge or something, but they... I wouldn't have gotten in to see anyone, and then I saw Inoro on the street, so I tried to tell him but every time I tried-"

She was cut off – at some point Itachi had dragged himself from the wheelchair and onto the side of the hospital bed. Now he was murmuring in her ear, arms around her, trying to soothe her completely fictional feeling of grief. She clung to him, and buried her face in his shoulder, trying to get as much of the guilt out before she closed it back up again.

Why did he have to believe her? Why couldn't he tell that everything coming from her mouth was complete and utter bullshit? Why couldn't he tell? He was her brother! He was supposed to know this! This was what he made it his job to keep from happening! Why couldn't he tell she was lying?

"Naruto, its fine – it didn't work, it won't work... Juugo's been cured"

_What?_

"Kiba and Sakura gave it to Juugo the same day Inoro brought you up here; Tsunade's going to organise some more scouts to search the bases the last set found; there's still some time left" he told her, trying to get the new rise of shaking to stop.

This... this couldn't be happening! He had to be joking! This... this was some sort of sick twisted_ joke_; she was going to wake up any minuet... dear god, was the fall out already starting when she had even _done_ anything for the bastard yet?

Itachi started to talk about they had given her the antidote too, but it sailed over her head and into oblivion. She had just... just made a deal with the _devil _himself, and there had been... there had been a chance she could have fixed it without the devil?

Oh god... something... something had to be done... something had led to this, and it _had to go_, it had to _stop_. But what? _Sasuke?_ She couldn't do that! She just couldn't give up on _him!_ It had been so easy... so easy to say yes... every time she thought about the possibility that this would get him back, it soothed the guilt, when it clearly shouldn't.

And now even that was down the drain?

"... Inochi's adamant that sealing it away is the best thing, but Tsunade-"  
"Seal what?" she asked, jerked from her thoughts by the momentary confusion.

He stared at her for a few moments, seeming to notice her thoughts were not with his for the first time since he had started talking.

"I was talking about your Sharingan Naruto... have you heard a word I've said?"

_Sharingan, Sharingan, Sharingan…_ That was what it all boiled down to in the end wasn't it? Without the Sharingan, she wouldn't have nightmares; she wouldn't have to watch every horrible memory replaying every night, everything about Sasuke!

If it hadn't been for that man, that man and his stupid _eyes_, she wouldn't have a demon in her gut, and she would have parents! If her own eyes hadn't been tormenting her for years – Ino and Itachi seemed to have forgotten that they had persisted through her years of training with Jiraiya too – then he would never have duped her with such an obvious illusion!

He had fed of her own depraved imaginations for that, he had brought her worst fears to life, and then he had suckered her into making a choice without being aware that she wouldn't be able to change her mind with those eyes of his! He knew his eyes made her feel chilled all over when she had tried to change her mind... it was why he had been so close the entire time...

"Get rid of it... _Get rid of it!_ I don't care if you have to pull my eyes from my head! Get. It._ Out!" _she snapped, her voice raising several octaves as a new and sudden anger began to well up amongst everything else.

Itachi stared at her for a few moments, completely stunned – he had obviously been expecting a different reaction. She couldn't blame him but no. Not any more. If those things kept _festering_ away inside her head... no. just no.

"Naruto, do you even realise what that means? You might never get it back if you go through with the surg-"  
"I don't_ care_ Itachi! I don't care any more, just _get rid _of it!" she screamed, cutting him off mid sentence.

She had never screamed at him quite like that before, never that desperately, or that angrily, and he knew it. She could tell by the complete stun on his face. She couldn't help it though – her own blood had turned against her, her own _DNA_. She was placing blame – she knew that – but she couldn't help it.

She had to place the blame somewhere – if she couldn't place the blame on somewhere other than her own conscious choice, she'd never be able to live up to her decision – her decision which, should she not live up to, would result in Sasuke's death.

She could carry the guilt for the rest of her life if she had to, but _that_ was something she would never be able to live with.

Ok, has kishi's stash gone completely out of date?

* * *

_**Konan hurt Mandarin! Konan! A woman in naruto did something useful! Konan hardly even had any screentime! That woman is my new hero! She shoul be on a wall of fame or something! She blew his arm off! Konan! Kishi has obviously lost his marbles. And Nagato was an Uzumaki? WTF? Red hair makes you Uzumaki? By that reasoning he should be Naruto's uncle, Karin should be his sister and Mei his third cousin twice removed...**_

_**Should be updating soon, with more plot now; should be some Deidara next chapter, and more Sasuke, as well as some ItaIno... I cant quitye remeber because I wrote the chapter ages ago. Keep guesing on Madara's identity too. Some good guesses, but not the right ones. Not many chapters away from Sasuke's return to Konoha now, and then things really will get original. Ish. The S**_**asuke-kidnapped-back-to-konoha **_**idea has been done before... **_

_**Meh, Whatev. I have good plot coming for you.**_

_**Hope you liked the chapter; remember to press the review button!**_  
_**Nat.**_  
_**xxx**_


	15. Act XV: Bomb Dropping

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS  
****ACT II: SCENE XV  
****~ BOMB DROPPING ~**

**

* * *

**

"What? Him? You're certain?"

Sasuke looked up at the sound of the guards voices, and edged as close as he could to the seal strengthened bars of his cell – it wasn't much but the guards usually had some sort of news, be it about Orochimaru or the ninja world in general. In the cell opposite, he could see Fuu mimicking his actions.

"Of course I'm certain! You don't miss a creep like that! His chakra is just..."

There was a shuddering noise as the man failed to express his revulsion, or fear.

"...that one is worse than Orochimaru-sama."  
"I'll drink to that; what was he doing here? I thought he was in water country?"  
"Yeah, about two weeks ago!"

Water country? That was where Juugo's base was! Sasuke felt himself beginning to shake; someone worse than Orochimaru in wave country? That wasn't a coincidence. That had been the same time that Naruto broke into Juugo's island prison...

"What is he here for? Doesn't he have demons to catch?"  
"I didn't get the details, but it sounded like he wanted to know when the transfer was going happen – Rinji swears he wanted it done by the week after next – he was on guard at the time

Sasuke felt Fuu's eyes on him, but all that went through his mind was the knowledge that, unless a miracle occurred, he had approximately two weeks left to live.

* * *

She was stuck in the hospital for another two days; Ino kept her eyes on her, as did Itachi (when Ino would let him get back into the wheelchair), searching for anything out of the ordinary. Naruto didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Laugh, because she was apparently a fantastic liar; she felt dread every time they broached the subject that had led to her brief stint in he hospital, but no matter how fallible her explanations sounded to her, everyone else believed them. She hadn't thought it possible to pull the wool over either of them.

But she wanted to cry; they were her family, Ino was her sister in everything but blood, and yet neither of them could see what was right in front of their noses. These people who knew her so well, when she wanted them to put their noses where it didn't concern them for once, couldn't see a thing.

That man, whoever he was, was smart (Ino had already told her of that ugly revelation). She hated him, absolutely hated him, more than she hated Orochimaru, more than Kabuto, she absolutely loathed him. But she couldn't deny that he had a good brain.

He knew how people worked – he probably only need a few weeks to figure out how to manipulate a person to his own ends. That was nothing to do with techniques or illusions – that was pure brain. It was an enviable aspect when in the hands of a decent person, but he was not a decent person, so it was detestable.

He really was a first class manipulator; in spite of knowing all that, that every single one of his words was twisted, she kept lying, even though it was tearing into her like an animal, and made her feel like killing something when Ino and Itachi kept missing it.

She loathed her own home, her flat, but she couldn't go to the main house; she wasn't ready to face all those memories, the ones she was trying to keep alive, again. If that man really had been telling the truth – a part of her doubted it still – then that would be the real test. It wouldn't be immediate, but if Sasuke could tell something was off once things had calmed down...

If he didn't notice there would be no hope, but if he did... She'd have to be clever, very clever, have to guide the conversations, have to piece together everything she could about this man, she'd be pushing herself to do it, but if she could do that, she might be able to get out of this without saying a word.

She would have to become the manipulator; Sasuke was her one chance to set everything right.  
How bloody ironic was that?

* * *

"Did she really agree?" Ino asked again.

Itachi nodded; it had been exactly one week since Naruto hurried entry to the hospital, but he was still just as shocked as Ino that Naruto had agreed to the repression of her Sharingan so... violently. She usually fought tooth and nail against those decisions.

Oddly he felt a surge of hope in it; it was horrible to think, but it was almost a sign that she was finally giving up. It went everything she believed in – Naruto didn't give up – but he felt a sick hope that this last... unwanted adventure had been her breaking point. He didn't want to admit it himself, but there was an incredibly high possibility that Sasuke was never going to come back, and Naruto desperately needed to see that.

"She hasn't given up completely... she'll never give up like that. She's always going to wait, and if there's even a hint that he's still alive, or that we can get Orochimaru out of his body and Sasuke back in, she'll take it as easily as she would have last week but... I don't think she can look any more – after what Kabuto said to her, she doesn't want that disappointment."

He turned a glance to the blonde girl sitting on the end of the hospital bed an eyebrow. She didn't seem to notice, and she didn't have the furrow on her brows that usually appeared when she was trying to pick things up from another mind, in fact, she was just staring out the window.

"I think that's why she wants it sealed away – because she doesn't want to watch things unravel any more."  
"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself" he mused.

She stared at him for a few moments, and then turned back to the window; something about Naruto's mind had scared her. She had seen the same sections he had, or parts of them, but there had been something else, something much more unpleasant.

She was closer to the mind than most people, and she was well on her way to reaching her father's level of skill – something in there had scared her, and now she was watching it out in the open.

"You can talk about it you know – I think you should actually. Keeping things bottled up is never good, and you've seen the effects of it Ino. Talk."

She stared at him for a few moments, and then chewed her lip as she considered her words.

"I've never seen her like that Itachi. She's been low before... you've seen it too, but not like that. I couldn't wake her up. It was like she wanted to stay in there. If it hadn't been for dad… I almost lost her too Itachi, inside her own head. I think as long as those things are still burning in her head, I still could. She's awake but... she's not really woken up yet." she murmured.

She sat still for a few seconds, before hopping down and coming up to the top of the bed, an indecipherable look on her face. She gave him a curios glance, and then perched on the edge of the bed so they were face to face, her legs dangling over the side.

"Can I ask something?" she asked, glaring at the strands of his fringe that fell over his eyes.

He nodded.

"I'm not making assumptions or anything but... that mask creep Madara whoever he is would have killed me if you hadn't gone into stupid mode, so..."

She frowned for another moment.

"...what I mean is, well, that's like, a big thing, right?"

She stared at him again, then began mumbling to herself, and then looked at him again. It took a moment, but he did catch on eventually, then he nearly laughed at his own obtuseness. A chuckle did leave his lips, and that made her stare again.

"Stop laughing at me!" she growled, her cheeks darkening a shade.

He rolled his eyes, reached one hand towards her face, and pulled her lips to meet his. She leaned into it, light as it was. He was healed enough to sit in a wheel chair for about an hour each day, but he had a long way to go before he was fully recovered.

She broke away and gave him a sheepish smile.

"Does that answer your question?" he asked.

She hugged him, carefully, but still managing to resemble one of those animals from the more tolerable parts of wind country – koalas? - as she hid her face in his bandages.

"I guess it's a start..." she mumbled.  
That time he did laugh.

* * *

He watched the youngest of the Akatsuki carefully for the next several days – he had to be certain the boy wouldn't be aware that he wanted him to overhear him when he finally had his discussion with Orochimaru. Deidara was smart enough to know when he was being manipulated.

He had caught on first, even as the Kyuubi was being sealed inside his sister he had known something about it wasn't right; a remarkable feat for a five year old . He had left the village several months later, and had actually survived.

He would have been a fool to underestimate him when he had so clearly inherited his father's brains; he was not above admitting that Minato Namikaze had been close to a match of his skills.

The man had been a great irritation for him; he may not have expected the attack, but he had put up a fight, and that seal! Removing the Kyuubi from his human shell would be a long and arduous process when the time finally came.

A week after removing the seal from Sasuke, he finally deemed it safe enough to approach Orochimaru; he was practically snapping at the opportunity to spy on them – it was clearly visible as it was at the same time not.

If it had been anyone else, Deidara would have appeared to be the perfect cohort.

Better than Orochimaru – the man had simply joined on a whim, and had no real interest in their long term goals. He would likely prefer to hold his little experiments on the Jinchuriki instead. Pity he only had his own one, and soon she would be gone too.

Zetsu thought he was mad for letting four demons slip from their grasp so easily, but it was like in a fight. By sending the useless and unskilled forward first, you reduced the ranks of the opposition, leaving the way free for more talented minds – sacrificing a few for the gain of many.

The demons would be in his grasp again, but first his eyes; nothing would work unless he had the eyes.

The meeting with Orochimaru was perfectly timed – Zetsu had gone to Konoha to make sure the removal of Fuu's seal, and so the resurgence he had placed on Sasuke, were correctly timed.

Deidara had, of course, followed, and while he was certain that he did not know of his meddling, he was equally certain that the boy has understood what was going on.

Thanks to this chance eavesdropping, Deidara would simply have no choice but to help Sasuke; it really was perfect. His plans continued unscathed, he made certain that Orochimaru remained under his thumb – he needed the man's resurrection technique – and removed the spy from his presence.

Of course it would have been best just to kill the boy, but it was more important to get Sasuke out without arousing suspicion; Sasuke already knew there was something slightly off about Deidara's loyalties – when the boy turned up barging in, it would be childs play.

Now if Deidara managed to get away or not, that was a different matter; Deidara would likely send them along to the Eight-Tails' valley. He doubted he could depend on Orochimaru to rid him of the boy but one could always hope.

* * *

"You summoned us?" Ino asked, Naruto, closing the door as they entered the Hokage's office.

She looked around the room suspiciously at all the toads – she had seen Gamabunta and Gamakichi outside, and they had been popping in and out of the village for a few days now. The toads didn't do that unless they were serious about something... what was going on?

"Ah good, you're here. Naruto, Ino - this Fukusaku, one of the elder toads from Mt. Myoboku…" Tsunade introduced the smallest and oldest of the toads present.

Naruto stared at the tiny toad blankly.  
"You're joking right? This tiny old guy is Fukusaku?" she asked disbelievingly.

Jiraiya had mentioned Fukusaku and Shima several times -she had hounded him with questions ever since she had seen him use sage mode - but he had never mentioned him being a midget! Where the heck was he anyway?

"Naruto! Fukusaku is a highly respected-"

Tsunade was broken of by the coarse wet gurgling laughter from the old frog.

"Nice to meet you Naruto, Jiraiya told me about you a few times, but I'm afraid my old bones haven't made this journey for a social call..."

Naruto was tempted to ask what journey – the old wart had hardly walked all the way from Mt. Myoboku now had he? - but the fall in his tone of voice was enough to hold her tongue. Something about the way he talked about Jiraiya had introduced a sombre edge to his friendly old voice.

It all fell into place and then broke apart again even as Tsunade began to speak; the expression on Ino's face was enough to confirm it – it was one of confirmation.

"Naruto, I've put this off since you returned because, well, you had enough on your plate, but this can't wait any longer. Believe when I say I don't want to tell you this but-"

"He's... he's not coming back is he?" she asked trying to keep the effort it was taking not to howl and scream of her face.

This... wasn't like with Sasuke. Sasuke could still come back – was going to come back thanks to her stupidity – but this... this wasn't fair. Why this now? Why was Tsunade telling her this now?

No, it wasn't her fault. Tsunade had told her she had held off on telling her about this. She was under the belief that her problems were focused on her own Sharingan, and Itachi, and on Sasuke. She was right in a way, but not completely – it wasn't her fault she knew nothing about the not-Madara guy.

She couldn't... she didn't want to believe this. Jiraiya was always there when she wanted him to be – she hadn't really seen much of him recently, but during her training... he had helped with the nightmares.

He had convinced her that skirts and dresses didn't make her any less kick-ass, and he had always refused to let her read his manuscripts until she had finally passed her sixteenth birthday, then he'd given her the whole damn collection of Icha Icha books.

He was always there, he was supposed to get really old and hobble around with a cane and the stupid toad contract until she got the Hokage seat, he was supposed to be there when they finally got Sasuke back... and now he was gone? He couldn't be gone. He was supposed to teach her the freaking sage arts!

"How long ago?" she asked already knowing the answer, already feeling the anger burning. Burning a little too much... she quickly restrained the Kyuubi's chakra with as much strength as she could. God, she felt like just letting it come out, but she couldn't do that.

"Sometime before you returned from the mission to find Juugo"

Akatsuki. Akatsuki was responsible for this; that man again! He may not have been the one to deliver the blow but he was in charge, and one of his rats had done this. God, she wanted to just let it go, but that wouldn't be appropriate. She'd just have to wait until she got the chance to fight the bastard who had done this. Not that manipulator, but his lackey!

"Naruto, I know Jiraiya was planning on taking you to Mt. Myoboku, and I'd be happy to keep the invitation open – you would have most of the training with me anyway. I know this must be a shock, but with the Akatsuki beginning to move-"

"I'll go, on one condition," she stopped him, then paused and looked up at Tsunade.

"I want you to seal my Sharingan away, for as deep and as long as you can before I leave" she told the woman be hind the desk, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible.

She had to stay calm. She had to stay calm until she could get out of the building and out to the training grounds. Until she could get somewhere where they wouldn't keep watching her. Somewhere she could let out all the building anger and rage and everything else a few blasts at a time.

The Kyuubi was still creeping into her veins – it could tell it was getting too close to her limit; it didn't care if half her problems were his fault, he just wanted the opportunity to get out. Ino surreptitiously stepped up behind her, taking her hold of the clenched fists, thin point starting to grow on her nails, in one hand and gripping them tightly. She was using a little of her chakra.

The comfort felt good – the hard grip gave her something else to focus on instead of all the bitter things swirling inside her. Slowly, she felt the Kyuubi drift back down to a manageable level.

"Naruto... are you sure about this? You don't have to make this decision so quickly, either of them."  
"I'm certain, on both of them. I need to learn the sage arts, and I need to be able to sleep at night without having to resort to drugs" she replied, not quickly, but firmly.

Tsunade stared at her for a few moments, perhaps trying to form some other argument, but relented with a sigh.

"All right. If you're certain, I'll do the operation myself. I'll clear my schedule and slot you in next week. It'll take a few weeks to recover even with the Kyuubi, and you'll be blind as a bat until your eyes recover, but I'm sure Fukusaku wont mind postponing until then..."

"Not at all" the frog assured her.

The verbal confirmation was like music.

"Thank you Tsunade-sama" she replied wholeheartedly, completely surprising Ino and Tsunade with her use of the honorific.

Tsunade's jaw even dropped for a few moments, but then returned to a frown.

"Naruto, you have spoken to Itachi about this haven't you? With your eyes going the way they are, the best you can hope for is a year at the most... this procedure was designed to reduce bloodline illnesses, to force it into a healthier re-development... Not get rid of them. The only way to do that would be to remove your eyes themselves…"

Naruto bit her lip – she did know that. It wasn't a pleasant notion to contend with – none of her notions seemed pleasant lately – but she needed its absence. She needed to be able to think straight, and she couldn't do that when she couldn't even sleep without medication and regular screaming.

"I know... I don't like it but... I'll take what I can get right now; excuse me."

Ino's grip on her hands relaxed; she gave a jaunty, two-fingered salute to the Hokage and the old geezer frog, before quietly walking out of the door. She kept her calm demeanour until she found the furthest possible training from the Hokage tower.

After making certain that there was no-one using it, she slowly allowed a tickle more of the Kyuubi chakra into her veins, and began to rip up the ground.

* * *

Twelve days. It had been twelve days since he had overhead that heart-stopping conversation between the two guards, and he was going out of his mind. Everything about the placed seemed to be getting to him now, and he was desperate to get out.

He had tried to break through the steel bars by throwing his bed through them, but that had only worked in paralysing him from the impact for over four hours. Fuu had tried calming him down, but after the seventh day, she had given up.

He was not a morbid thinker, but he was not going to let Orochimaru use his body to haul his ass around. He was going to hold out until the latest possible moment, and then he was going to bite down on the poison pellet embedded in his tooth, and with any luck he was going to take Orochimaru to the grave with him.

If he couldn't have his own body, then no-one could; the poison would numb him, and then stop the functions of his lungs, then his heart, then it would grab onto all the other molecules in his body and start decomposing it at an increased rate. The purpose was, if in an unavoidable death situation, to keep Konoha's secrets from being obtained.

This time it was going to kill Orochimaru. He deliberately blocked any thoughts of Naruto from his mind. He was completely and totally ready to take that bastard straight to hell. Then it started.

There was a scream from Fuu as she suddenly collapsed to the floor of her cell, clutching the seal on her shoulder, a dreary white froth bursting from bubonic looking pale growths on her neck, her body completely rigid and shivering in a ball on the floor, her veins suddenly very blue.

Then he felt it; it was completely bone-wracking. He could feel the searing and severing of something in his eyes his skin his blood, even his nails. It all leeched up towards his seal, then he could his skin rapidly building, then bursting, spraying his face with that disgusting foam – it reeked of something rotten.

Fuu almost immediately recovered, but she had a demon to heal her body for her. Unfortunately Sasuke did not have this luxury, and once the foam had stopped gushing from his neck, the blood from the open, burst sores, began to trickle.

He was briefly aware of commotion upstairs, of shout from the guards, of the clattering of hurried footsteps on the stairs, but his head was dulled by the overload of so much pain in one moment. He knew what it was – Naruto and Ino had cured Juugo – but he could hardly move.

"You! What the hell are you- Hey! What the heck are you going to do to him? Get your filthy Akatsuki claws off of those bars before I-"

Fuu's voice was drowned out by the sound of an explosion, the clang of the broken steel bars hitting the back of his cell, the crunch of one stray piece of shrapnel spearing his shoulder, and of broken rock clattering back to the earth, then the faint hiss of falling dust.

"Sasuke, you have to get up! If you don't get up, Orochimaru'll be taking up residence before you can say welcome home, yeah!"

Blearily, be blinked through the dust, one hand clutching at his shoulder – it didn't actually hurt now, nothing did. He supposed that was adrenaline. Once the dust faded, he was able to make out the familiar face of Naruto's paternal errant brother.

"Deidara?" he blurted, blinking again several times in surprise – was he sick and hallucinating again?

"The one and only, move, I need to pull this out!" then blonde grumbled, scrambling over a larger piece of rubble.

His hands were brushed aside, and there was a yank as the fragment of metal was pulled from his shoulder. He let out a loud swear as it was removed, but the pain immediately began to dissipate, and the green glow of the gritty air told him that Deidara was healing the wound as best he could on limited time.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked, still a little dazed.

"What does it look like bozo? I'm helping you bust out of this snake-hole, yeah! Move – I'll heal your neck, and then I'll get that green-haired chick, and get you both out of here! Have you ever been to Lightning Country?"

Deidara's hands moved to his neck, as he tried to keep up with what had just been said to him. Lightning Country? That was the one with all the... lightning. His head was very fuzzy – he knew they had mountains, and freak storms in the mountains, but he'd never been as a Genin. Why was he talking about Lightning Country?

"From the inside of Orochimaru's pits, other than that... I've never been out of Fire Country... why?"

"Because that's where I'm sending you – I was hoping you'd been there before but... Oh well, you'll just have to wing it once I get you sent off – here's your sword and pouches and arm-things... Try to stand up while I go rescue Minty!"

Sasuke felt something being pushed into his hands, and hurriedly pulled on his equipment – it felt so good to have his sword and shuriken again. The pouch felt a little heavier than normal – had Deidara filled it up?

"Minty? _Minty?_ My name is _Fuu_ you pea-brained idiot! Or do us Jinchuriki not register enough on you human scale to give us the common courtesy of remembering our names?"

Fuu, who had been watching the scene from her own cell in absolute horror, confusion and fascination, objected loudly to her new nickname as Deidara crossed the hall.

"Blood and fire, you're loud Minty! We're going to have enough company from all the explosions – please don't draw more with your screeching, yeah!" Deidara replied, pulling some of his clay from the pouches beneath his cloak.

Fuu stopped objecting when she realised what he was doing, and then and began demanding explanations even as Deidara finished moulding the ball of clay and threw it at the bars.

Sasuke had the sense to take cover this time, but he was barley standing after the second explosion when there was another one, a little further towards the closed end of the cells, and he was yanked from his feet. He could hear lots of voices upstairs, lots of feet. People were coming.

"Move! Orochimaru is going to be seriously pissed about this, yeah! I've blocked off the corridors, but that won't hold him for long, even if he is almost a zombie! Duck, yeah!"

He threw another ball at the wall, dropping him and Fuu – who had been rather unceremoniously dragged with by the man's other arm – to the floor, before hurling another, and another. The explosions were deafening, and he covered his ears.

Jesus, it was like a war zone, or was it? He guessed it was like a war zone, maybe Itachi would know? Damn, Itachi wasn't here! This was so over his head right now... It took several moments to realise he could smell fresh air, and looked up, an action mimicked by Fuu.

There was a gaping hole in the rock, revealing the outlying country surrounding the lair. In the distance, he could just make out the dim shapes of the Lightning Mountain ranges in dark-light that occurred just before dawn. He may not have been to Lightning Country itself, but he'd heard the mountains were some of the biggest on the continent.

Then the sight was blocked by a giant white bird – it looked like an eagle, or an especially large hawk. He didn't have much time to admire that either, because Deidara grabbed him by the waist and unceremoniously dumped him on the back of the thing.

"Hey! You put me back down Mr. Bomb-tastic! Get you hands off me! Get them off! Get them-"

Fuu was plonked down on the bird behind him, and then Deidara gave them both a stern gaze; even the objectionable Fuu knew to pay attention to that look, and Sasuke remembered it being on Naruto's face a few times – usually when she was peeved about something.

Deidara turned and pointed to the dim shapes on the lightening darkness ahead of them with one finger, keeping his eyes on them to make sure they were listening.

"Head for those mountains, it'll be dawn soon, so head for the biggest once you can see them clearly, then head down into the fjords – you'll find a flat expanse of rock near the big one, and then to the left there'll be a flight of steps leading up to a shrine, go up the steps and hammer on the door until Killer Bee stops training and starts rapping and all that bull-"

"Killer Bee? You mean the Eight-Tails host? How do you know him?" Fuu demanded her eyes going wide as he recognised the name.

"-we go way back, the guy's crazy, but he's a good guy, yeah – just tell him who you are and he'll get you back to your villages... What am I forgetting? Oh yeah, if you don't reach the big mountain in 15 hours, jump of that thing no matter where you are, or you'll blow up."

"What? _Blow up?"_

Fuu was completely ignored as Deidara began to lead the bird towards the giant hole.

"There's food and med-seals in your pouches and that red thing of Minty's, and I restocked all the weapons – you shouldn't run into trouble around here, but us Akatsuki gits are a bit bull headed, and someone might follow, I'll do what I can but no promises – I intend on getting out of this alive myself, yeah."

Sasuke was beginning to put a few things together now; he had always been in two minds about Deidara, he had never seemed to go one way or the other despite the cloak, but now he had a good idea of where his loyalties were, and he didn't know if he was comfortable with the guy staying behind.

Those guards were getting more active above them, and they were a little closer now. Deidara may have blocked them, but they were breaking trough whatever obstacles he had left. Fuu's, getting the impression that there was more at play than what she was aware of, suddenly changed her objections to a completely different tune.

"You're staying behind? Are you crazy! There are hundreds of guards in here! You can't possibly handle them all by yourself!"

Deidara glanced at her curiously for a moment, the grinned.  
"Nice to know you care so much Minty," he said with a wink.

Fuu flushed bright red.  
"My name is Fuu! _Fuu!_ Not _Minty!_"

Deidara ignored her, he had finally dragged the bird to the front of the gaping hole; Sasuke was close enough forward to see the completely sheer drop that disappeared below them, and he instantly clung to the earthy neck of the creation. He was not afraid of heights, but that was a _seriously_ long way down...

"Just tug the feathers to steer, and remember, fifteen hours, yeah! I'll see you around when I get out of this Sasuke; say hi to Naruto when you get home, then tell her I'm going to kick her arse to Sunday and back for going all crazy on Madara! Good luck to you too Minty!"

"My name is Fu- hey, you know _Naruto_ too? What is it with you and your Jinchuriki pals? Do you know Utakata and Roshi too? What kind of _stupid _Akatsuki are you?" the girl demanded, confusion drowning her objections.

Deidara ignored her, and moved to the back of the bird – Sasuke suddenly remembered the god-knows-how-many-thousand metre drop, and he felt a little sick. Maybe he didn't like heights so much after all…

"Wait, Deidara... I'm not sure I'm-"

"See ya' later losers!" Deidara yelled, giving the backside of the clay anima a vicious kick that sent it spiralling down to the canyon below, Sasuke words lost in two screams of horror.

He seriously thought they were going to die until the bird swooped up and rose again, catching the blustery air currents that always came with mountain territory. He clung to the bird, and he could feel Fuu cling on for equally dear life as the clay bird sailed away from Orochimaru's base on towards lightning country.

* * *

Naruto didn't feel better, in fact using the Kyuubi chakra so steadily had made her feel worse. Her body was protesting against its use, but she kept demolishing the earth.

Every blast with a trickle of the red chakra was like three successive blasts from Ino's fists. At first, the strength releasing techniques had been beyond her, and she had relied on Ino to perform them during the fights with Kakashi and Deidara, but the more she had seen of the technique, felt it being used, the easier they had been.

She didn't need Ino's help now, and Ino didn't need hers for the Rasengan, even if she didn't use it as much (her chakra reserves wouldn't let her use both very often, even if they were a lot bigger now). Still, the Kyuubi chakra made such a difference, and she was barley using it... she wondered if she could mix it into the Rasensuriken.

Her ears suddenly pricked up movement through the bushes; she had batter wrap this up as soon as she could. If people found out she was using the Kyuubi chakra like this there would be yelling.

She let out another crumbling punch onto a boulder that had flew into the air on her last impact and had been heading towards her; it crumbled to the finest dust, completely settling in the air around her. She quietly pulled the Kyuubi chakra from her system - it was surprisingly easier than normal.

Maybe if she let the Kyuubi out in little bits more often, he wouldn't be so pig headed when she needed to use the big stuff? She dismissed the thought as she heard the crackling in the bushes draw closer. Turning around, she watched until someone stumbled from the bushes.

She couldn't make out his face in the dark light before sunrise, and scrunched her face as she tried to pick out any distinguishing features. He drew closer in the darkness, and she eyes widened when she recognised the wrinkled face of Homura Namikaze.

He blinked in surprise when he recognised her, then stared at the destroyed training grounds almost appraisingly.

"Why are you destroying my training ground at 3am?" he asked, politely, but getting right to the point.

Naruto blinked – his training ground? Oh bugger. Bugger. Bugger. Bugger! She had just crashed in on a private training ground, literally. Shit! Why hadn't she remembered that some of the grounds were private? Hell, why didn't she check?

"Uh... I'm sorry. I didn't realise this was a private training ground..." she stumbled out, praying to god he couldn't feel the tiny traces of Kyuubi chakra in the air. This was awkward enough without having to explain that too.

"Why? You have an equal right to use this land... I just wondered why you chose to do so at this time in the morning" he replied, in the same flat, calm tone.

Naruto bit her lip; what the heck was she supposed to say to him? The only time she had even see them was when he was leaving the Hokage's office, back when the third was still alive, and he had barley taken the time to say two words to her.

She didn't know how much she could tell him; some things were obviously out, but did he know about the sleeping thing? He probably knew about Jiraiya, but how much did he know about Sasuke?

"Err... I needed to... vent," she replied simply, hoping it was going be enough to satisfy him.

He stared at her for a few moments, looking her up and down with barley a movement of his eyes; she was covered in dirt and even had a few scratches that the Kyuubi had yet to heal. She was holding it back, so it was not getting the chance to attend to them as it normally did.

"You're filthy – come with me."

Naruto blinked at the order, and remained briefly still before warily following him; Jiraiya had told her to go talk to her paternal grandparents, so she would give him the benefit of the doubt for now. But if he dragged her off to meet dear old Danzou there would definitely be issues.

The silence was suffocating – she guessed that the old grouch wasn't the type to make small talk, or was feeling the awkward himself, so the short journey to the house was uncomfortable. She had never been to this side of Konoha – it was a little fancier than she was used to.

The Uchiha compound wasn't all that special, the traditional feel of the place just made it seem that way, and her own flat was not exactly high up on the desirability scale – the area was decent enough, she supposed, but the only true separate room was her training room, and bathroom. Everything else was stuffed together in one big room.

These houses had two layers – the Uchiha compound didn't have many of those. She had seen them, just not so many in one go before. They seemed to loom over her head. Or was that just the awkward?

The house he led her to was right behind the training ground she had just demolished – she could see the line of trees hiding it from view. She was surprised no-one else had woken up, but this was close to training grounds, so the people here were probably used to it. It was why the area was so popular.

She was left to wait in the flat part for removing shoes inside the door – like the Uchiha main house, or Ino's – as the man disappeared into another room; there was a short sound of quiet voices, then the man came out and disappeared up the stairs.

A few moments later, Koharu appeared, looking sleepy in a dark green dressing gown; she took one look at her, thinned her lips, and made a gesture to follow her. Naruto almost forgot to pull of her boots before following her, feeling incredibly jittery, up the stairs Homura (he was not her grandfather – that position belonged to Teiyaki) had just climbed.

"Wait here."

The woman disappeared into another room, leaving her standing like a lemon in the hallway. This was all very confusing. She didn't have time to consider what this was all about, however, because the old woman reappeared carrying something blue.

She made another following gesture, and Naruto trotted along behind her dumbly – she didn't really know what else to do, and the woman did not seem to be making any attempts to speak, so that was an out. They stopped in front of another room, and her the bundle – clothing? And wrappings too? What the freak?

"The shower is very simple – come downstairs once you're done" she instructed, disappearing back down the stairs.

Naruto was flabbergasted as she absently pushed open the bathroom door. After locking it behind her, she took a closer look at the clothes she had just been handed; it was old, but it seemed to have been well looked after. The dress wasn't all that different from the one she was wearing, it was just blue all over, with white on the inside lining.

One thing that caught her eyes was the large Uchiha fan on the back; why did the old woman have a dress with the Uchiha symbol on? Frowning, she put the clothes on the toilet seat, pulled of her own and stepped into the shower.

Once she was done, she pulled on her underwear again, then began to wrap the bandages around her legs – she was glad the woman had given her them really, her mesh leggings and shirt had been torn up a little, and needed to be fixed, if not replaced.

Picking up the dress, she paused to look at the tag inside – someone had written on it, but then someone else had scribbled it out, and written _'Miki'_ instead. Her eyes widened; she'd seen that name in the letters Sasuke had found...

She'd heard it being said to the owner in her memories years ago. This was her mothers. Miki was her mother's nickname. Why did Koharu still have this? Frowning in confusion, she pulled it on and zipped it up – the collar was a little wider than her own, so she left that a little loose around her neck.

She picked up her equipment belt that held her shuriken pouch and sealing bag, and clipped it low about her waist, the two pouches at the back. The buckle had replaced her old headband, and she had painstakingly carved the Konoha logo into it with chakra when Jiraiya had decided that she was skilled enough to have her own sealing kit.

After fastening on her kunai holder, she picked up her own clothes – normally she would have scrunched them up in an untidy ball, but this house was freaking spotless, so she mad a haphazard attempt at folding them. It looked all right to her...

Deciding she couldn't avoid it any more, she picked up the clothes and crept down the stairs.  
She was terrified of making even a single noise. She peered into the room Homura had first disappeared into, and then ducked out of the living room to peer around another door further down the hall.

Kitchen; Koharu was seated at a wood table flicking over something with a nib-pen and ink, a pair of what she supposed were reading glasses on her face as she peered at the papers on the table in front of her. Naruto had sworn that she made no noise when she entered the room, but the woman looked up almost immediately.

"A little shorter than I expected, but better," she noted, indicating the chair opposite her own with a short gesture.

Naruto sat down nervously, depositing the dirty pile on the chair besides her own, gripping the edge of it, as if to leech support from it. She wasn't used to talking with these people, barley looking at them even, and now they were lending her showers and her mother's old clothes.

This was so whacked up.

"I presume you have been told about Jiraiya? "

Naruto jerked her head up from her staring at her knees to the woman opposite her; she was gazing over the top of her thin rectangular glasses at her, waiting patiently for a reply.

"Uh... yes ma'am."

Ma'am? _Ma'am?_ What on earth was she saying? Apparently the woman was surprised too because she raised an eyebrow for a flickering second.

"Hmm... He was a respectable ninja, for all his… _eccentricies_. I presume that was why you were tearing up the training ground?"

Naruto nodded, not trusting her own mouth not to make a fool of herself again.

"Your father was very attached to him."

Naruto's head jerked up at that; her dad? She had known Jiraiya had taught him when he was a Genin, but the way she said that made it sound like they were as close as she was with the old codger, or had been.

"Homura and I were not good parents; I never liked your mother's name. Minato was smart, and I wanted our name in the limelight. When the council grew concerned on the decline of the Sharingan, I pushed the decision for her to marry Fugaku"

Whoa! What in the seven levels of hell? What did she just say? Jiraiya never told her that! He just said there were a few bumps on the road before her parents finally got together! That was more than a few bumps in the road!

"She wasn't much older than you are, if I remember. Minato never forgave that, even when he married Kushina like I wanted, he never let go of her. He liked Kushina, a lot, but... It worked out in the end I suppose."

Whoa, this was out of the blue. She had been expecting sneering, the looking-down-the-nose thing the villagers liked to do sometimes. But... this? This was so out of the blue she couldn't even _see _the blue.

"I didn't know when Mikoto was pregnant with you, but he told Jiraiya, and that was before Iwa started sniffing around her. I'm not making excuses or defences - this is simply fact. I've dealt my cards, and ugly as they were, I don't regret it."

Holy freaking hell, she had met psychic woman! How did she know? Did she know? If she did, how did she know? Was she going to turn her over to Danzou? That would probably solve her problem, but she really didn't like that guy! Koharu watched her features over her glasses intently, and the panic must have shown on her face.

"It seems you've dealt some nasty cards too... maybe you have more Namikaze blood than I thought you did; calm yourself, girl, I'm not interested in whatever you've done for that brother of yours. Meddling in such things is useless in the end – I wouldn't be speaking now if they were" she informed her pointedly.

Nothing about this woman made sense – she didn't know if this was the extending-hand-of-truce or not, but somehow this woman, someone who had barley looked at her in all her sixteen years of life, had just done something that made...

Even if she managed to work around things by telling Sasuke, there still hadn't been any... validity in her decision that she could see, even if it was Sasuke she was doing it for. How could there be? She had all but handed herself on a platter to one of Konoha's worst enemies.

There was no excusing that. Then this woman comes along and gives her some perspective, something almost equally heinous in a way, to relate to without intention or even interest. She suddenly felt the need to show some appreciation of some kind, but she didn't feel she could come out and say that.

That was a little too much considering this was really her first time having anything that remotely resembled conversation with the woman.

"What... what was he like? Dad, I mean. I remember some things but-"

She was broken off by a yawn that broke from her mouth without her permission, and Koharu fixed her with another considering look. Then she shuffled her papers into a neat pile on the table and stood up.

"You can stay in your father's old room tonight, honestly, _3am_... You've picked up Kushina's obstinacy..." she muttered the last part as she walked from the room.

Naruto hoped she had enough of Ino's pills to keep her voice down and that the early hour would keep her from dreaming too deeply. She didn't want freak them out again. She should probably have declined, but...

Unexpected, and awkward as it was, this was too good an opportunity to get a closer look at her parents for her to give up.

* * *

_**Um... Please don't kill me...? I suck at fast udates! Plus I was trying to get my muse for this story back, but I do have about 10 chapters ready, so that's not really an excuse... **_

_**Uh... Rate and review if you liked!**_  
_***Runs far, far away from pointy weapons* **_

_**Nat.**_  
_**xxx **_


	16. Act XVI: Puzzles

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

* * *

**ACT II: SCENE XVI  
~ PUZZLES ~**

* * *

Sasuke clung to the clay bird of prey with a death grip – Deidara hadn't really given them much instruction on how to steer the thing other than _'pull the feathers'_, and that wasn't really very much use.

The wind blustered about his ears, and he was quickly realising that those books in the academy hadn't been joking about the mountain storms in this part of the world; he hoped to god they didn't run into any lightning before they got to the mountain looming ahead in the dawn light.

Speaking of dawn, how long had they been flying? He guessed about five hours now, but he really didn't know very clearly, and he woUld prefer otherwise; some freaking rescue this was! They were miles high, being blustered about by the gales as they encroached on the distant peaks, and their transportation was a ticking time bomb!

Absolutely brilliant.

"Sasuke, how do you know him? You never told me about that!"

Fuu's voice came low over the noise of the wind and the beat of the wings beneath them; her arms were wrapped tightly around his waist to keep from being blown off – free of the cursed seal they may be, but using chakra of any sort was out of the question.

Fuu had already used the Nanabi's chakra to heal herself back in the cells, and using it again to fly by herself would be suicide. He would use his own if he had them, but they had disappeared with the cursed seal.

"I met him when Orochimaru dragged me to one of the Akatsuki bases – he's Naruto's brother on her father's side, didn't she tell you?" he shouted back.

"No! We were more interested in comparing demons and stuff – she mentioned you, Itachi and Ino, but that was it! Is he a spy or- Hey, isn't that the big ass mountain the one were supposed to aim for?"

She pointed over his shoulder towards a towering pinnacle looming in the distance. It was several degrees right, and he tugged on the feathers to the right of the bird's head, steering the clay being in that direction.

"I don't know what he is, but I think he's trustworthy for the moment..." he replied.

Fuu remained silent as the time passed, still considering everything that had happened in the last few hours. It took another hour for them to reach the mountain range itself. And it took another two hours before the looming mountain began to draw noticeably closer.

The rocky terrain below them began to intertwine with blue rivers from the sea, and some of the peaks themselves became islands in the middle of vast blue inlets; for someone who had never truly seen anything beyond the grasslands and forests of fire country, and the mangrove's in wave country, it was completely surreal.

They had been flying for seven hours buy that point, and he furiously steered the giant explosive towards the rocky crags further west. They flew for another eight hours before finally making out a small line in the side of the mountain – steps. Deidara's directions had been right after all.

"Sasuke, how long have we been flying?"

Fuu's question alarmed him, if he had been right about the length of time they had been flying, then it was getting incredibly close to the tine their transportation to explode. He stared at the line of still indistinguishable steps in the side of the mountain – they were still miles away from it.

"We need to get off – and soon... You think this thing flies down, or will we have to jump?" he asked, giving the clay bird a contemplative look.

Fuu glanced down at the scenery passing by below them; there were several crags poking out from their watery surround, but it wouldn't be a total death trap if they were to jump. The problem was surviving the water – if they hit it after falling from this height...

"You said you could control Juugo with your Sharingan right? Think you can control a demon?" she asked, still peering over the edge of the animal.

"I could try..."

"That'll have to do I guess – if your skin feels a little tingly ignore it – I'm going to use my wings. If we hit that water, we'll be pancakes"

Sasuke frowned but nodded; he didn't like the idea of resorting to demon chakra, especially after the reaction their bodies had experienced from the removal of the seal, but he supposed they really didn't have any choice. Fuu pulled off her white shirt – she was wearing a backless shirt beneath it - and handed it to him along with her red back pack.

"Hold these for me..."

He took hold of them, and she linked her arms underneath his, and once she was certain she had a strong hold, she pushed off from the white clay. The departure had come not a moment too soon – farther above them, the clay bird exploded with a monstrous flash of smoke, noise, and fire.

There was a horrible feeling as they rushed towards the earth falling meters by the second, until there was a familiar surge of demonic chakra behind him, a high-pitched, buzzing, screech almost beyond his ability to hear from Fuu, and they were almost pulled up by the set of insect-like wings that ripped from her back.

* * *

Two figures, exchanging furious blows atop the surface of the water, halted without warning. The blonde woman looked up and sniffed the air for a few moments before her eyes widened; beside her another blonde, paler-haired and dark skinned, let the chakra building in his fists die in surprise.

"Bee-"  
"I felt it Yugito... do you know who it was?"

Yugito shook her head, and sniffed the air again, twitching her nose as if whiskers were accompanying it.

"Whoever it is, they're almost as strong as the Ox, but they can't control... Wait… It's gone."

Killer Bee frowned; an uncontrollable demon didn't cut of its chakra just like that. They all wanted freedom; even the Cat and the Ox within himself and Yugito longed for it, they had simply been tamed. Someone had stopped it from releasing, the question was who?

He knew it was not that of the Fox that Naruto contained – it didn't feel strong enough, but he didn't know of any other Jinchuriki below him personally. He knew about the one-tail boy who now led Sunagakure, and of course Yugito, and the old Mizukage, but he had not actually met anyone else.

"Do you think it's the Akatsuki again?" Yugito asked, her eyes narrowing as they began to dart across the surface of the water.

"I don't know, but whoever it is just stopped a strong demon from going on the rampage – that takes certain genetics or a very, very strong will" he replied.

Yugito frowned.

"They don't smell offensive... I can usually pick up that much, but we should be careful; there's someone with a strong demon around here... Just because there's two of us does not mean we'll be invulnerable. Keep an eye out Bee."

"I intend to Yugito... Now, let's go say hello to our visitors."

* * *

Naruto woke up early, much to her relief; Ino's meds had done their job it seemed and she had kept any mumblings to a quiet minimum. For such a short nap, it was one of the best nights sleep she'd had in a while.

She supposed that was because, for once, her dreams hadn't been about Sasuke, but her parents. It had been the one she'd had when she was recovering from Not-Madara's resurgence technique, with both her parents in, when Deidara and Itachi had been five and Sasuke only a year older than she was.

For once it had been a good one, and for once, she had remembered it. She sat up in the bed for a long time staring around her father's room; it was like it had been frozen in time, despite what Koharu had said about having no regrets about her actions.

A collection of kunai sat in a box on top of a chest of drawers, clothes still hung in the wardrobe – the ones with wear and tear, a pair of green trousers and a white jumper with blue stripes on the sleeves, had obviously been favourites at one point. The bed was beside a window, and a collection of various different rocks – all picked out for some sort of notable quality in their colour, texture, or make-up -lined the window ledge.

On the cabinet on the other side of the bed was a huge pile of books on sealing, ranging from level one – baby things like simple storage seals – to level 20, the final level of intermediate study before moving on to the books only for those aiming for seal mastery. She was still six levels behind that book.

What drew her attention most of all though, was the collection of photo frames on the desk, surrounding more books, not sealing, but just casual reading. It was easy to see that her dad had been a reader.

There were pictures from his Genin years, and it was those that drew her eye; the first was his team photos – his own, and that of his Genin. In his own, he stood to the left (in the photo) of the red haired girl who had looked after her for three years.

He was glaring at Kushina, and she was glaring right back with equal strength; on her other side, Fugaku had a resigned _'why me?'_ look on his face. Jiraiya looked positively horrified by the prospect of teaching the three hellions in front of him.

In the other, Kakashi, and a black haired Uchiha-like boy stood either side of a girl with brown hair, her father's hands ruffling their hair. That photo looked a little out of place – given the frozen stasis of the room, it had probably been added by the owners of the house.

Her eyes drifted over the frames, her eyes wide at all the different people; was that Ino's dad, and her Aunt Yoshino? She hadn't even thought Shikamaru's mother knew what a grin was, but she was grinning away with his father, and Choji's dad, and Ino's mother.

Those weren't the ones that really drew her though; she caught her mother immediately. The first one with her in was obviously after being assigned to Chunin status, if the green vests were anything to go by. She was wearing the dress and bandages the same way she was now, and the vest was open at the front instead of zipped.

Beside her was Kushina, and someone who looked like Kiba's mother. In another, she was with her father, grinning, even if he looked a little put out for having to carry her in a piggyback. Much to her surprise, Inochi was doing the same thing with Kushina.

God, she wished Ino could see that one. Moving on, Kushina and her father looking not quite as happy as they should be at their wedding, her mother a few months along beside Fugaku. They looked about nineteen, twenty, maybe eighteen for some.

A little further along, and she was greeted by a picture containing baby versions of Itachi and Deidara – Deidara seemed to be upsetting Itachi quite a lot if his baby frown was anything to go by. She continued to shift her eyes through the images until she came to two final photos.

One was an obvious celebration, and judging by the hat on her dad's head, it was for his appointment to Hokage. There was something about the smug face of Fugaku and Kushina as they watched their spouses hugging the daylights from each other that told her it was a turning point.

The last one though... the difference was that her parents were standing together in it. Really together. They looked a lot happier than they had been in the photos before hand. She could see Deidara pestering Itachi, and Kushina laughing at Fugaku as what looked like an almost-toddler Sasuke tugged on his hair viciously.

Mostly, it was the hand on her mother's stomach as her father hugged her that caught her eye. It looked like a simple arm around her waist, an affectionate gesture but... Was her mother pregnant in this picture? She didn't look it.

She didn't know how long she stood there staring at the pictures, the snapshots of her parents' life, but it felt like forever. It must have been, because when she finally drew her eyes away, Homura stood in the doorway watching her, leaning against the frame – he had been there a while.

"I'm sorry... I just-"  
"It's fine. You probably haven't seen a decent picture of them before." he replied, entering the room to stand and glance at the pictures himself.

He picked up the last of the pictures on the desk, and gave it a more discerning glance in this picture.  
"What can you see when you look at this?" he asked, holding it in front of her.

She glanced at it in confusion once, but quickly replied.  
"He's hugging her, and they look happy" she told him; were those glasses of his working?

He sighed and replaced the picture.  
"I thought so; that picture is from Minato's own home. That was taken about two weeks before you were born, at the hospital."

Ok, either he had an explanation or the crazy thing really did run in the family, only it seemed to have skipped a generation to herself and Deidara. The old man picked up her confusion without even glancing at her though.

"After the Kyuubi attack, Fugaku cast a memory technique on you. I don't know the details, but when he sealed your bloodline away, he altered the memories of everyone in the village."

Naruto stared at the photo in shock; that was why no one had known? Fugaku had gone to that extent to keep her family a secret? What on earth had made him go to that extent?

"Well, almost. Anyone who looks at you thinks you're Kushina's daughter; any photo is immediately hidden by an illusion to hide your real bloodline. I understand it was very complicated, but he was adamant. Iwa had already tried to kill Mikoto, which was why everything was so quiet originally, to keep her safe until you were born but..."

"Things went up shit creek" she replied.

Then she realised what she had said, and clapped her hands to her mouth and glanced over the top of them at him sheepishly.

"That's one way of putting it I supposed..." he chuckled momentarily.

Naruto dropped her hand, and she bit her lip furiously to keep it under control as he continued.

"Everything went to pieces in the Kyuubi attack; nothing held that thing back. We received word from the Fire Temple, but it was intercepted, so we were completely unprepared. When Inochi told us it was a demon, no one believed it but your mother. Once she found out which demon... well, she was far from pleased."

Naruto was staring at him as he revealed details everyone see couldn't remember, or had thought her incapable of coping with when she was younger, and had never had the time to tell her thanks to everything else going on now that she was.

"She knew something about it from stories – most people of Konoha knew about Jinchuriki, but their identities in Konoha were kept quiet, so most of us thought they were pure Myth, something developed over time since the Senju reign... they were stories."

"Wait, they thought Jinchuriki were _myths?_ But Jiraiya told me the first Hokage's _wife_ was one, and some other woman before me from Kushina's clan when I was training! And there must have been_ rumours _from other villages during the wars! One of the _Mizukages_ was a Jinchuriki!" Naruto protested.

He nodded.

"They were, but only the Hokage and the elders knew that. When the second Jinchuriki died in Tobirama's reign, everyone assumed the Kyuubi had died with her, and rumours from other villages were scoffed at..."

Naruto decided the villagers of Konoha left a lot to be desired for on the common sense scale. Really. If you heard rumours about Jinchuriki in other countries, surely that meant they were _real?_

She knew that the Kyuubi had always been a well kept secret in Konoha, unlike other villages. Likely because the Kyuubi was the biggest one and most powerful of the lot, and other villages would have itched to have it, but this was just _ridiculous!_

"...They were forgotten by everyone but your mother and Fugaku's grandfather – she grew up listening to stories from before that, and while she hadn't _believed _them, she had paid attention..."

Realisation dawned; of course she had suspected that Not-Madara was responsible for the Kyuubi attack, but this directly... He had killed the second Jinchuriki! He had waited to attack Konoha when it had forgotten about demons, about him! Wait... that seemed off.

Why bother to wait? Konoha would have been frantic at the loss of the Kyuubi back then - that would have been during the second war. He could have attacked while the time was ripe – why wait for Konoha to grow and strengthen? What on earth was that man after...?

"...Mikoto knew something was off about it, and she went looking for a solution of her own with Itachi, but she never sent word, and your father had to seal it again, bringing the nine-tails back into Konoha. After that, we found Itachi in the Uchiha compound; it took Tsunade over two months to wake him from his head injuries, and Mikoto had vanished..."

The way he failed to mention Not-Madara made her think he didn't know about his involvement in anything, and she silently thanked Tsunade and for not mentioning it; she didn't doubt that if he knew about his involvement, he wouldn't be so quick to share this information, and it was pure gold to her right now.

"...Your Sharingan began to start keeping you awake after a few months – it started after Deidara disappeared actually. Danzou and Iwagakure were beginning to get interested. You come from two very strong lines of ninja, and with the fox as well you were a target for every village, never mind those people..."

Naruto was sick to death of all these people chasing after her; Danzou, Iwagakure, Akatsuki, and not-Madara... The only person she wanted to chase her was Sasuke, and that was a _completely_ different kind of chasing. All these secrets and running was getting very exhausting.

"...So he hid you. All the Jonin, bar Inochi, had any memories of you altered, or removed completely, as did Itachi. The Hokage too, agreed to it, as did Tsunade and Jiraiya, though I believe they were only partially made to forget on Sarutobi's request. The daimyo was informed of the decision of course – he has a hand in anything major surrounding the Jinchuriki at one point or another. I think the only reason Koharu and myself were not in the technique ourselves was the simple fact that we are related..."

Holy mother of fire and father of wind! No wonder Tsunade and Jiraiya and everyone had been so confused. There had obviously been months, even _years_ of information erased from their minds...! How on earth had Fugaku done something like this? She could understand Ino's dad doingn somethink like erasing memories, but a whole village...?

"Anyone else, people who only had minimal interaction with you, simply believed you to be Kushina's daughter – she and Mikoto have a similar facial structure, and you look like Minato, so it was easy to believe. Only close investigation such as your own would have broken it, and everyone had their explanation, so they let it be. The technique wasn't supposed to be permanent but..."

Not permanent? That meant that Fugaku had some control over its length then... That was off though – Fugaku had died three years ago, so shouldn't the technique have lifted then?

"But... Fugaku died..." she murmured, half to herself, half to Homura.

"True, the technique could have been taken to the grave, but I doubt it – in all probability, it was transferred to someone else upon his death, keeping it intact, who though... That I don't know."

Naruto glanced back at the picture; until the person who maintained this technique died, she'd never see the real picture. She supposed that was because the technique applied across the board.

"You can keep those if you want."

She almost dropped the picture in surprise.  
"Keep it? Are you sure? I mean, these are yours! I don't-"

"They'll do more use with you than being locked up in here like a shameful secret – no one can see the real thing anyway. Koharu wants you to take them – not that she'll ever say it. I think it's her peace offering. You can take the sealing books too – I understand you take after both of them in that respect."

She raised her eyebrows as her eyes widened again; she didn't know her mother had liked sealing too. She thought that all came from her dad. She couldn't believe the words coming out of this man's mouth, but he wasn't the type to make a joke – he wasn't cracking a smile at _all._

God, how had her father put up with all this seriousness? Jiraiya had told her he was pretty bubbly once you got him out of his skin, but these two were... urgh. They were just the kind of people she avoided because she knew they would never see eye to eye on certain things.

"If you insist, I'd be happy to take them of your hands!" she grinned, thinking it was probably safe with this guy after her slip of the tongue earlier. Koharu... probably not so much.

He gave her a glance that was impossible for her to interpret.

"There is eggs and toast if you want some, but rest assured no grudges will be held if you leave" he informed her, before turning and disappearing from the room.

Naruto stood there for several moments, before pulling a blank scroll – an essential basic for any one with an interest in seals – from her sealing kit, and storing away the photos, some of the books on levels she had yet to achieve, as well as her own clothes.

After pulling on her equipment belt and holster again (she had taken them off the night before) she tentatively descended the stirs, and joined them in the kitchen; they didn't have to know she didn't like eggs all that much.

Sasuke stared up behind him as blue spikes grew on Fuu's hands to her mid-forearms. The wings that had painfully grown from her back were much like those of a fly.

The veins and edges were a yellow green that followed onto the main bones that sprouted from her back, leaking to her skin even onto her front, where more spikes of the same colour sprouted. The fine, but thick and sturdy material that formed the wings themselves was a sickly bright yellow tipped with orange.

The Blue spikes had formed on her hands seemed to be slowly forming into the pointed legs of an insect, the spiked offering some help in her to keep her grip on him as they sailed much more calmly on slant towards the water. He still didn't think it was wide to use his chakra so quickly, but he needed the Sharingan and they would have to walk on the water.

The moment they toppled into the water, he groped for the surface, pulling up the traces of chakra he would need to stand on the water and use the Sharingan to keep Fuu's demon from getting out of control. When he finally surfaced, he found none of the exhaustion or burning he had expected, but decided he would probably feel the effects later

Pulling himself onto the water's surface, he cast his eyes around in search of Fuu; finally catching sight of her he was alarmed by how quickly the demon had managed to progress the transformation. It was just like Gaara had been during the invasion – half human, half demon hybrid.

Another set of wings was beginning to push their way out from her spine, as were another pair of arms – beetle arms – beneath her own as they slowly turned blue and hard with beetle armour instead of flesh. Her face was already half into a snarling pair of beetle-like pincers.

He could see the demon in her already heading for her eyes and he raced forward, before it could take her into the air beyond his reach; she snarled trying to fight him off, but he guessed she still had enough control to keep from attacking him directly like Gaara had in the same predicament.

Then again, Gaara had been going insane from sleep deprivation; Fuu always seemed to sleep like a rock.

Forcing her head to face his own, holding her eyelids open for good measure, he poured as much chakra into them as he could and bored into her mind with his eyes; he felt something burning at the back of them as something trickled down his cheeks, then he was somewhere else.

A horrible grotesque beetle was chained to the dark, but still grassy, expanse in front of him by what looked like the roots and cobwebs of a large single tree, but not completely - it was almost free.

He caught its gaze and it hissed a clicking noise at him. He was certain it was talking to him, but he was not fluent in insect tongue, so he ignored it, instead focusing on keeping the lock he had somehow caught its gaze in going, pushing chakra into his eyes for all he could.

"Get back demon!" he snarled.

The thing shrieked in a high pitched cry of fury as the roots began to creep back around it, and thousands of spiders crawled from the roots and leaves of the tree to keep it glued in place with their silk. He knew he had succeeded when the struggling finally subsided.

Then he was back on top of the water, with Fuu; her skin was peeling off, but the demon already seemed to be healing it, albeit slowly. She was in no condition to be moving, especially not by herself, so he pulled her onto his back. It would be best to wait till she had healed, but they didn't have that time. They could be being followed.

He had somehow managed to hang onto her things, and keeping them in hand, he started the seemingly unending journey towards the leviathan mountain in front of him.

The problem was gauging how far he still had to travel. He was constantly under the shadow of the thing – it seemed to blot out the sun, and so he had no idea how long he had been lumbering along with his passenger. It was just there – it never shrunk!

He stopped occasionally to make sure Fuu was healing the way she should, as far as he could tell at any rate. By the time the sun had properly risen, she had healed enough to be a little more coherent, and they didn't seem any closer to the giant rock in front of themselves

Sasuke was slowly beginning to despise it.

After another three hours of travelling, he almost fell through the surface of the water when the drain on his chakra became too strong too soon. It didn't help that he hadn't used chakra for almost four years now, and his control was severely loosened.

"Sasuke, you don't have to carry me any more – we can stop on that crag up ahead, eat something, then we can keep going once your chakra recovers"

Fuu pointed to an island up ahead, a tiny crag poking out of the fjord, pulling his arm around her shoulders and heaving him up from the surface of the water. He could tell she was struggling herself; there was no way she had recovered after a transformation like that.

Naruto had only summoned the chakra in wave country, but it had left her stamina at a low for several days, and he didn't even want to know that thick red cloud had done to her after the valley, never mind the four tails Ino mentioned during that one meeting.

That raised a question in his mind as they, clambered onto the rocky outcrop poking from the water.

"Why doesn't your transformation make a cloud around you? That's what the Kyuubi did with Naruto…" he asked, rummaging around in the pouch Deidara had provided him with.

"The Kyuubi is a bit more patient than the Nanabi is, that's why it waits until her emotions get out of control, when her mind slips and it's easier for him to take control - if I had more control over it, I'd have the same thing, but the beetle just goes for the final hurdle every time I even brush it's chakra" she started, hauling her red backpack onto her knees.

"Beetles aren't as smart as foxes see, and though I can control my emotions better than Naruto, I can't control demonic chakra as well as she can" she continued, unzipping her own backpack for her own supplies.

"The whole burning-from-the-inside thing is a bit too intense in one moment when the beetle tries to take over for me - the Kyuubi builds up to it as Naruto lets her emotions slip. It was one of the things we talked about when we met" she finished, finally pulling out a storage scroll.

His eyes sighted a scroll of his own, and pulled it out; unfastening it to the first seal that had been drawn on it, he bit his thumb and swiped it across the ink – it really only needed chakra, blood was only for high security seals that much he did know, but he couldn't pull up an ounce of it, and it was always present in blood.

What emerged was the usual rations – soldier pellets, ration bars, a few canteens of water (as if they needed that here) and a few bits of fruit, but it was like the first real meal since Orochimaru had dragged him off to Oto. More importantly, he could feel his chakra already replenishing.

"My god... this is... like... the most amazing... food ever, even if... it's crap..." Fuu moaned around the chewy bar of what Naruto and Ino had once called _'rabbit food'._ She was devouring it like a wild animal.

They stayed on the rock for perhaps half an hour longer, giving themselves time to recuperate from their different but still strenuous uses of chakra, before heading back out onto the water. It was a lot easier to regulate his chakra, he noted, without a passenger.

As they walked, he thought back to his suppression of the beetle; his eyes had burned for almost ten minuets after it, and that had been blood that trickled down his face. He had asked about the stages of the Sharingan when he was still in the academy, and his father had taken both himself and his brother out to the training grounds and given them a non-harmful demonstration of the mangekyo.

As far as he knew, he had not lost anyone notable to death's clutches. Not that he knew of, and he knew that was the requirement for the Mangekyo. He knew what its traits were though, and that was what he had experienced. How had he done that?

He remembered all the irregularities about Naruto's Sharingan, and began to wonder if there was a link. If Itachi could explain it, or maybe one of the older members of the clan, maybe they could find an explanation for Naruto's Sharingan too.

"Sasuke, there's someone up ahead!"

He looked up from the water he had been staring at as he pondered his thoughts to stare out at the expanse of water and mountains in front of them.

Fuu was right; there were two dark figures on the bare edge of his sight. He couldn't make out anything but their shape though. God, he hoped they were just passing through, because he really wasn't in the mood or the condition to be fighting right now.

Fuu, who had been peering at them with an odd frown on her face, suddenly began to drop her jaw, and then began to hop up and down on the water excitedly.

"Oh my god, of all the luck!" she cried exuberantly.

Then she took off at her fullest speed possible across the water waving to the two figures, and trying to get their attention with their voice. Sasuke began to swear, and chased after her, yelling at her to stop.

It was so easy to see why she and Naruto had clicked.

* * *

"There! Straight ahead!"

Yugito pointed to the two figures just beyond completely clear vision; even from this distance, Killer Bee could tell that the shorter one was the Jinchuriki. Yugito had been right about the demon – it was only a fraction weaker than his own. Not that it was really much of a difference to anyone without a demon.

"Should we go closer? If one of them is an Akatsuki..." he let it hanging – he didn't really need to explain the dilemma to Yugito.

"Let's go slowly – we still don't know what they're here for, and if they are, then we want to be extra cautious after that mess back home" she replied.

They set off at a walk, and then noticed something rather odd.

"Is... one of them waving to us?" Yugito asked in perplexity, staring at one of the figures.

Indeed one of them was waving frantically at the two of them, seemingly running towards them, the other seeming to follow from some distance behind. As they drew closer, they could finally make out the figure of a girl – eight or nineteen maybe – with green hair frantically waving and calling to them.

"Killer Bee-Sempai! Mister Ox!"

That drew him to a surprised halt, and apparently Yugito too.

"Do you know her?" she asked.  
"Not that I'm aware of..." he replied.

Her companion had also entered sight, and he could tell it was a boy, black-haired, minus an Akatsuki cloak, and carrying a sword on his back – that perked his interest immediately – who was also shouting. Though his shouting seemed out of irritation, and was directed at the girl.

"Fuu! Don't go near them! They could be dangerous! We should just head for the mountain like Deidara told us to!"

His eyes widened at the two names; now that he had a name, he could place the girl as the seven tailed Jinchuriki form Takigakure, which explained the strength of her demon. As for Deidara, well that name he knew quite well. The boy was an idiot, but he seemed to have accomplished something after all his years trawling the continent, trying to get recruited.

"Fuu! Get back here!"  
"Shut up Sasuke! You don't understand! Just hurry up!"  
"Hurry up? I'm not running up to two complete strangers! That's stupid! Even Naruto wouldn't do that!"

Sasuke. Sasuke? Sasuke! Sasuke Uchiha! Naruto's brother... boyfriend... Person! Naruto's Person! Mother of Lightning, Deidara had actually done something useful! He got the beetle-girl free from Orochimaru, and Naruto's Person to boot! Damn, that meant he owed the kid money...

Amidst all this commotion, he had to note that Sasuke's yell was a bit off – Naruto _would_ go running up to a complete stranger. That was how they had met – she had been in Kumogakure with Jiraiya to trade information on the spy network; she had been waiting for him to come back from meeting his contact, and had picked up on the presence of another demon before he had.

She had reacted in a very similar manner to how this Fuu girl was now.

"They're good Yugito, let's go meet them!" he said quickly, not giving her enough time to reply.

He wished he could explain, but this was too urgent to stand around for. Instead he waited till she had caught up with him to begin explaining, and by that point, there was no point.

Fuu stood in front of them, hunched over, panting for breath, but raised her head with a huge grin on her face, her red eyes bright despite her exhaustion.

Sasuke was quickly approaching, flicking his eyes over the two of them, searching for any movement that would indicate an attack, one hand raised to the sword on his back warily – he had a good head on his shoulders, and he could tell from his stance that he knew how to use that sword.

"Relax kid, were not Akatsuki or Orochimaru's goons" he ventured placating.

The hand didn't drop from his sword – instead, it tightened, and his eyes bled red, narrowing.

"Think I'm stupid? Just because you say so doesn't mean you couldn't be from somewhere else just as bad, or an illusion – how would you know anything about Orochimaru anyway?" he grated.

Ah. This was probably going to take some talking.

* * *

Time in a hospital bed gave a man time to think about a lot of things, and Itachi was no exception to this rule.

Most of the time, his thoughts were on ways to make the food more enjoyable, make the staff rota more efficient (Ino complained about that so much he now knew the shift of every medic on his floor), and lastly Ino.

Itachi had known Ino for a long time; he had met her the same day he had met Naruto - for what he had presumed to be the first time - and Ino had tried to poke his new ANBU tattoo to get a rise out of him. That had been not long after she had first entered the academy.

Since she was Naruto's best friend, and Naruto developed a similar relationship with Sasuke during their academy years, he had met her more often than not, and eventually, it was normal to see her in his home.

Ino had watched him a lot even then, and that had not lessened, but remained very firm once they graduated; it was also at that point when they teamed together to play cupid with Sasuke and Naruto.

That had been when he really began to notice her as more than the scenery – she became a friend. She had a twisted sense of humour sometimes, had a sharp mind, and usually noticed a lot more than she let on, sometimes more than she noticed herself.

He learned that she was not above blackmail if it would get her problems sorted, and so was a very determined sort of person. He supposed that was where the attempt at Iwan voodoo came from (he had to admit, that one had worried him a little bit).

Still, not much changed, even when things started to go down the plug hole; he had been suitably flabbergasted when he learned she tried to posses Orochimaru, but that was a normal reaction. He had seen a lot of her character during her match with her brother too.

She had set herself up to loose so she could win, goading her brother into making a mistake that had almost cost him the match; had Ino's chakra not been so drained, she would have easily beaten him, and gone on to the second round with Naruto and Sasuke.

Ino could be a very conniving person when it suited her, but since this was not an admirable quality to have on display, she kept it to herself. Only himself Naruto, and possibly Sasuke knew just how sneaky she could be, but she did not like that quality, and so she did not use it very often.

He also learned that she would not hesitate to use personal relationships to her advantage – even if he hadn't been aware of her emotions at the time; she had used everything she knew about him, carefully worded her questing and, with her brothers help, to confirm her own suspicions about Naruto's lineage without his notice until much later.

There were other instances too – that one day in the flower shop run by her clan had cemented her as someone he could trust to listen when he needed it, and provide a solution if she could.

When he had found her at the valley, almost ready to tear out her own brain thanks to her handmade concoctions, he had seen just how far she could push herself when the situation required it. He had never seen that in her before – Sasuke and Naruto were the rash actors.

Until then, he had thought of the Orochimaru incident to have been nothing more than stupidity, but that was not the case. She had tried to possess Orochimaru at risk of her own mind because she knew that his brain held knowledge on matters more important – where Naruto really came from.

When he had found her at the valley, despite the state of her own mind, she had forced out Naruto's location in the hopes he would be able to follow Kabuto's trail, and nearly put herself into a permanent coma.

Ino was always dependable – with team-mates like Naruto and Sasuke, someone had to keep an eye on the bigger picture – but she could be brash and irresponsible when it was needed (even if it didn't seem like it at the time), and that was a quality many dependable people he knew did not possess.

He watched as she came back into the room with another drip to replace his almost empty one with a very considering gaze.

And then - of course – she seemed to have changed overnight from thirteen-year-old Ino to sixteen-year-old Ino, and all those qualities had made her a little bit more dangerous than he had cared to notice. They made her the perfect interrogator.

She could be ruthless if needed, could trick information from stone tongues, and knew very quickly which information was better suited to staying in her ears until it could be dealt with, and often before others in the same branch who had been in the job twice as long.

Those qualities also made her too hard to predict – if an interrogator was predictable, like all ninja, it would be easy to work around them, no matter how they worked. The difference lay in who an interrogator made their thinking unpredictable, whereas normal ninja simply needed to very attacks and strategy.

Ino's mind was constantly jumping around – she couldn't afford to let people know how her mind worked, and that soon crossed over into her personal time. He knew then that she was somewhat interested in him, but that was all he knew.

Itachi liked to know things – the more you knew about a mission, the more likely you were to succeed. Itachi had known Ino for a very long time, but he still had trouble figuring her out when she was at her best. His success recently had only come about thanks to her own laxity on her control, and reaction to whatever misfortune befell them at the time.

Infuriatingly though, she could read him like a book; he had never watched Ino the way she had him, and he felt she had a horrible advantage over him. She made no sense in his logical way of thinking because that was what she been trained for, and had been working towards since she first activated her telepathic communication at the earliest age in her clan – five.

Her brother had been twelve and her father nine – she had been made for the interrogation department, and the only reason she avoided it now was because her skills were needed by her team elsewhere, and given the bull-headed nature of its members, that meant someone needed to patch up the bruises. She had been made to keep people confused, on their toes, guessing.

Guessing occurred in puzzles though, and puzzles could be solved with logic – Itachi had watched Ino in the hospital, and quickly decided that if he thought of her as a puzzle – a very pretty one, mind – he might have a better chance at understanding her.

He was wrong – no matter how long he watched there were some things he just couldn't put a reasonable explanation to. One example was her frustration with the strand of hair that framed his eyes. He could sometimes see her hands twitching in impatience to brush it out of the way. He had no explanation for that.

Another was the grin she always gave him after hanging up his drip bags; there was no reason to grin every time. He knew she was competent medic, the only person her age that could hold a candle to here there was Kiba (though Sakura was quickly becoming a second).

Why the need to grin each and every time? There was no need for reassurance. It was such a cheesy grin too – wide. Naruto's influence no doubt. It wasn't that he was complaining – Ino had a nice grin – but he didn't follow the reason behind it at all.

He eventually arrived the conclusion that if he ever wanted to understand Ino, he would need a lifetime to do it. There was of course a logical solution for that too.

She was standing on her toes, reaching up to change a different drip when he decided it was a good time. He waited for her to finish, and turn to grin at him, as always. Yes, that seemed to be a good moment.

"Ino, I think we should get married" he told her, completely seriously.

She blinked at him once, and almost fell over; she grabbed hold of the stand that held the drips above his head, and stared at him in complete utter surprise.

"No." she replied bluntly.

Once again, Itachi had proved that Ino was a puzzle almost entirely beyond his comprehension.

* * *

"Sasuke stop it! That's them! They're Jinchuriki too! I can tell! That big guy is Killer Bee!" Fuu snapped, removing his grip from the sword for him.

"What? How can you be so sure?"  
"I can sense the demons! Just trust me! They're who Deidara told us to find!"

He searched her face with his eyes, still red, trying to detect a hint that she was uncertain before flicking them onto the dark skinned guy and the woman beside him. Concentrating, he probed at them with a trickle of his meagre reserves.

He felt the violent chakras immediately, and his eyes darkened to their normal black in relief.

"Sorry" he replied – it wasn't an amazing apology, but it was the best he could do for someone he had only just met.

"Relax, you've got the right to be on your guard; nice to meet you two – I'm killer Bee, and this is Yugito."

The dark skinned man introduced himself to them then the woman beside him – she seemed a little confused, so he guessed the man hadn't explained anything to her. Like Deidara hadn't really explained anything to them.

"Deidara said you'd be able to help us get back to our villages – that he knew you..." he ventured, still a little wary of the two demon hosts in front of him.

The two of them nodded.

"Met the kid when he was about eight – he'd left Konoha a couple of years before that. I caught him trying to make those stupid mouths on his hands on one of the islands on the edge of the mainland when I was 22. Kept him straight for a few years, then he buggered off trying to get recruited so he could spy on that creepy leader of the Akatsuki" the man grumbled.

It sounded like Deidara had been quite the handful, and Sasuke completely sympathised with the man. However, he had to wonder if Deidara hadn't picked up some of his own habits if the roll of his companion's eyes was anything to go by.

"How long have you been travelling? You look exhausted..." Yugito asked; her fingers were twitching a little as she examined them with her eyes.

Fuu began to explain the removal of the seal, the flight on the clay bird, and then the walk across the fjords – Yugito rolled her eyes in exasperation when they mentioned the bird, then set about giving Fuu a proper check over. That was something of a relief – he had been relying on the Beetle to heal her, but he wasn't a medic, so his knowledge was basic at best.

"...Westarted walking again a few hours ago." Fuu finished, making several wincing noises as Yugito healed some still unhealed skin on her arms.

"_That boy..._ I'm going to string his guts out the next time I see him...!" Yugito muttered, not seeming to pay attention in the slightest.

"Well, looks like we'll be going on a holiday after all Yugito!" Bee grinned.

Yugito gave another sigh of resignation – Sasuke felt pity for the woman. She seemed completely sane, yet she seemed to be accompanied only by loons. Naruto would probably like her too.

"Holiday?" Fuu asked.

"Yeah! If were going to get you two back to your villages, we'll have to make a side trip instead of going straight back to Kumogakure like usual. Maybe I can branch out into Enka..." Killer Bee trailed off, mumbling to himself.

The man was nuts. Was it something common amongst Jinchuriki? The only sane one he had met was Yugito, and he had only known her for about half an hour now.

"I'd hardly call it a side trip Bee – that's two different countries you're talking about" she muttered, before turning to Fuu, giving her another quick check, before deciding she was satisfied with her work.

"All right you next" she instructed.

He moved into the spot Fuu had previously been occupying obediently; he got the impression there was no point arguing with her, and he didn't really think a check would hurt.

"We'll send a message to your villages when we start moving – I think they would be glad of the heads up" she said, scanning the green glow of her hand over his eyes, pursing her lips slightly.

The glow brightened, and his eyes suddenly felt better, even though they hadn't been bothering him at all. Fuu made a strangled noise of indignation of the idea of her village being glad for a heads up, but the woman seemed to ignore it.

"I think we should head for Konoha first – there's something odd about your eyes, and your chakra networks are very fragile right now. If it wasn't necessary, I'd tell you to stop using it right now. Both of you need to see Tsunade." she stated, giving Killer bee a look that had his attention immediately.

"All right, I'll send my brother a summon and tell him to send a hawk on ahead he muttered – the notion obviously didn't appeal to him, and Sasuke wondered if he didn't get along with his mentioned brother.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn he saw a smug grin on Yugito's face.

* * *

_**Long time since I updated; I've been busy. Hope you liked this chapter, I should have updated ages ago, but meh, I was busy, and then I was just lazy. It is an art for that generations of students have moulded to perfection. Especially art sudents, or is that just me? More of Sasuke next chapter - look forward to it. I'll try to get it out earlier, but no promises.**_

_**Nat.**_  
_**xxx**_


	17. Rush Together

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

**

* * *

**

**ACT II: SCENE XVII**  
**~ RUSH TOGETHER ~**

* * *

"Why not? I think it's a good idea" Itachi asked, feeling the horrible emotion called confusion beginning to wash over him all over again.

Ino stared at him, as if he was completely missing something, which knowing Ino he probably was, but was the idea really such a bad one? Life expectancy for ninjas may have gone up since the war, but it was still nowhere near that of civilians.

Shisui was only a few years his senior,and he had already been married to Anko for about five years. _Anko._ If his father had been alive, he would have been poking and prodding him to hurry up and do the same. He certainly liked Ino, a very great deal, and he was certain the feelings were reciprocated. Where was the problem?

"_Why not?_ Itachi, for one thing I'm sixteen – it's not on my list of priorities, for another, there's too much _crap_ going on to think about all the formal legal stuff, never mind the rest, and for another, you haven't even asked me on a _date_ yet!" she informed him, sounding exasperated for some reason.

"We're ninja – there's _always_ crap going on"

"Exactly – you've already proved you're as bull-headed as Naruto. It's not worth the legal crap" Ino replied, barley recognising his words as she headed for the portable trays.

"Ninja don't live long – it's common knowledge. My parents were the same age as you when they married" he countered, watching as she ground up several powders in some water, adding some chakra every so often.

"Yeah, and look how _that_ turned out – you do remember Naruto don't you? She's half the reason there's so much crap going on!" she replied, pulling a fresh roll of bandages and some med seals from the drawers and crossing to the bed with the pile of things.

"That was completely different – for one thing, half of Naruto's problems are because of her bad habit of internalising things" he retorted; she flipped his hands away from his sides with her hands, and began to unravel the bandages on his chest, but not without a roll of her eyes.

"The answer's still no Itachi" she told him, leaning closer to pull the bandages from her nearest side to the furthest behind his back, then start the process again.

If he had not been covered in bandages, he would have used the opportunity to try and convince her with his mouth; Ino tended to yell at her patients when they interrupted her work though, and he was certain she wouldn't speak to him for a week if he tried.

"Why?" he persisted.  
"I just _told_ you why!" she told him, sounding a little irritated.

She finished unravelling the bandages and began to remove the seals that had been placed over his skin, directly above his internal wounds. There were so many that he couldn't even see the purple bruising on his skin for paper and ink. Carefully, she pushed a little chakra into them, and began to peel them off.

"I still don't understand why you don't want to" he persisted as she began to apply a greenish-white salve onto the fading purple splotches across his chest, using her chakra to dissolve it down onto the injuries themselves.

"I don't understand how you even think it's a good idea" Ino replied, moving onto another of the dark patches.  
"We have all the prerequisites covered" he informed her seriously.

She stopped her medical ministrations to stare at him in incredulous confusion.

"I'd say we know each other fairly well; we both know you aren't rejecting this on the basis of lack of feeling, and that there's no lack of them from me, we've already had sex. In you're words, I've already proved I can go into _'stupid mode'_, and you know Naruto and Sas- and your dad wouldn't object – I really don't see what the problem is."

He had to catch his tongue on Sasuke's name; he wasn't going to be in their ability to help this late in the game, no matter what he had told Naruto. He hated the thought, but of them had to face the facts. Ino knew it as well, but even she still held onto some hope. Distracting himself, he tried to gauge Ino's reaction.

Her face became completely unreadable; he was certain she was listening, and could see what he meant, but what she thought of his thought was lost to him. She turned back to his healing injuries, applying more of the salve to them, and then placing fresh seals over the top – they would push the concoction down the way she had with her own hands moments ago.

"Naruto'd be over the freaking moon..." she muttered to herself.

He didn't really know what that meant, so he tried a different approach.

"I distinctly remember Tsunade-sama once telling me one reason you didn't care that Naruto and Sasuke were related was because if you got me interested and we got married, then Naruto would be your sister for real" he informed her pointedly.

Ino stared at him, her eyes wide and her face turning red.  
"She _told_ you that?" she demanded incredulously.

His nod did nothing to direct the conversation in the direction it was supposed to be taking; instead Ino began muttering to herself about hiding Tsunade's sake. There was also mentionof sending her enough paperwork to keep her piles of it at shoulder height for two weeks. That was not productive, so he changed his tune again.

"If it's a date you want, we can go out as soon as I've healed" he offered, hoping a trade off of some kind would work – it seemed to have an effect of some kind, since she began to chew on her lip in thought, leaning forward as she began to wrap the new set of bandages around him.

"One date isn't going to make me change my mind Itachi..." she told him – he could tell there was a _'but'_ coming though, and kept his tongue silent.

She finished with the new set of bandages, and turned to stare at him pointedly before beginning to speak again.

"...but I guess I can let you _try_ to convince me. I'll give you until Naruto comes back from training with that geezer frog at Mt. Myoboku, deal?"

He considered it; he already knew of the conditions Naruto had given the toads about her eyes before agreeing to the training. That had been yesterday, and her operation wouldn't be till next week. There would be recovery time on top of that so... it could be up to two months before Naruto finished that training.

He stared at Ino incredulously as she bent down to peck his lips before disappearing from the room; she really was a stubborn idiot.

* * *

Ino banged on Naruto's door with a frantic fist; whatever depressive pool she had jumped in could wait this time.

This was too big to be left alone; what on earth had he been thinking? Were his meds off? Ino snorted as soon as the thought had entered her mind – as if _her_ meds would be off. She had avoided Itachi all day since he had let that tag explode, and she had finally found a solution to her whole problem.

Naruto answered the door in a set of clothes that were not her usual ones, and they raised an eyebrow from her as she walked into the small flat, before plopping herself down on the bed and staring at her friend – who looked a little alarmed – directly in the eye.

"How long is it going to take you to finish that toad training?" she asked.

Naruto stared at her from the door she was closing; Ino seemed very jittery for some reason, and a jittered Ino usually meant something to do with Itachi.

"I Dunno... Jiraiya explained a little of it to me, and it sounded kind hard to get the hang of, so at lest a few weeks... why?" she asked suspiciously.

Ino breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good, think you can try drawing it out a little longer for me?" she asked, sounding rather pleading.  
"If you want, but why?" Naruto repeated the question, sitting down at her table directly beside the bed Ino was currently occupying.

Ino bit her lip and wrung her hands together as she searched for the words for several long seconds.

"I sort of... told Itachi he had until then to... convince me to... marry him" she mumbled.

Naruto, who had been going through one of her fathers books on sealing as Ino said this, blinked, several times, then the book fell from her hands in complete, utter surprise. She turned to stare at her, slack jawed and wide eyed.

"What?"  
"It was so _his _idea! I mean, that bit was mine because I was _freaking out_, but the marrying thing was _so_ his idea!" Ino babbled, feeling the need to defend herself.

Naruto tried to think about this from Itachi's perspective for a few seconds, trying to see which crazy train of thought he had jumped on, and failed miserably.

"But... that makes no sense! I know I told him to stop thinking with his brain, but I didn't mean completely!" she cried in disbelief.

Ino bean to massage her temples, as if trying to remove a migraine.

"That's just it! He had all these reason why he thought it was a good idea, and they weren't altogether insane! He's really thought it through!" she moaned in frustration.

Naruto frowned; if that was true, then he obviously meant it. Ino knew that, and Naruto knew that Ino was not objectionable to the idea at all. Itachi probably knew that too, so why the need for convincing?

"Why are you complaining about this? You should be jumping up down through my roof right now!"

Ino hung her head in her hands and fell backwards onto the bed, giving another groan of frustration from between them. Naruto suddenly got the feeling she had done something uncharacteristically stupid. Again.

"I wasn't expecting it! He just _blurted_ it out when I was changing his drip bag!"  
"You said _no?_"

Naruto wanted to beat her head against the table; these two were going to be the death of her. They really were – never mind Sasuke or Madara or anyone else, these two were going to send her into an early grave simply from all the stupid little blunders they kept blundering into.

They were stupid. They were the stupid couple!  
The stupid couple!

"I didn't mean it! It just slipped out, and I didn't want him to know he surprised me like that, so I had to say keep shooting his arguments down!"

Naruto let her head drop to the table, onto the splayed pages of the sealing book with a solid thunk. She knew it. She knew it, she knew it, she knew it. Stupid couple. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

"I give up, I seriously give up..." she mumbled – she couldn't deal with the stupid couple being stupid on top of everything else.

"Just promise to draw the training out as much as you can, and give me some warning before you come back! Please Naruto!" Ino begged, jumping of the bed to kneel on the floor, tugging on her sleeve and staring at her pleadingly even if she couldn't see it.

"Oh for the love of... _Fine! _I'll do it, but the next time he asks, you'd better say yes or so help me I will strangle you!" she hissed warningly.

Ino pummelled into her, repeating the words 'thank you' over and over again as she near strangled her with the effort. Eventually, Naruto managed to pry her off and get back to her book. Ino stared at it and at the change of clothes curiously.

"Where did you get the book? And where'd the dress come from?" she asked, picking up another of the books off the table and staring at it curiously.

It was beyond her comprehension of seals, but she had never seen them in the flat before.  
Naruto grimaced.

"They were my dad's - well, not the dress, that was my mum's, but the books were his. I've got a whole load of photos too..." she muttered.

Ino blinked several time, before demanding explanations.

* * *

Sasuke had a headache; it was not that he didn't like Killer Bee – he was a nice guy all around – but did the man have to make so much _noise?_

They had spent the later part of the morning and early part of the afternoon heading up into the dryer mountains that existed on the edge of the fjords, and now they were walking through the well worn paths that seemed to be carved into the side of the mountains by years of erosion from feet.

This was another new branch of scenery for him – he'd been across fire country, but there was very little land more than a one or two hundred meters above sea level. Even the volcanoes were comparatively flat compared these mountains.

"How do you find your way around up here? Don't you get lost trying to keep all these things straight?" he asked Yugito, trading very carefully on the slippery path beneath him – it was so dry that the earth just crumbled away beneath his feet.

"Most of our academy years revolve around excursions memorising the paths out here – if we didn't we'd probably die. There aren't very many things to eat up here, and the storms can rip you from a mountainside if you don't know where to hide – I'm told it was very advantageous during the second war…" she replied.

His eyes widened; rip them from the _mountainside?_

"I wouldn't worry – we're too close to the border for there to be any serious storms here – the land begins to flatten down as we get to the coast of Fire Country. There isn't the altitude for any storms that bad" she informed him, sensing his alarm.

It appeared they had been closer to the coast than he had thought, because by late evening, their steady pace through the winding paths of the mountains began to loose their altitude as Yugito had predicted, and the salt tang of seawater drifted lightly on the air.

He could even see the border of Fire Country several leagues away from the top of the mountains before they began to loose their altitude. They camped that night at the base of one of the low hills, and whilst Fuu talked animatedly with the two Jinchuriki about shared experiences with their demon companions, he tried to place the distances and locations with his faint knowledge of geography from the academy.

Deidara had sent them west, if he took the location of that monster mountain into account, and it had taken fifteen hours of constant flight to get to the fjords. They had headed north towards that monster, but then Yugito and Killer Bee had led them south after sending a summons to their Raikage.

They had travelled had a fair pace given how completely exhausted he and Fuu were, not having slept for well over twenty four hours, and now they were in the flatter mountains of a country he didn't know the name of – it didn't have a ninja village, so he had never bothered to learn it – that bordered Fire Country.

Orochimaru's lair had probably not been very deep into the epicentre of Lightning Country if they were able to travel so far so quickly – even on a run, he had been certain the journey to Fire Country would take at least a week. At this rate, it would only take another week to get to _Konoha._

If he had his geography right, then he would be back home before the month was out. It was completely staggering. He'd _finally_ be back in Konoha, back in familiar territory. He'd see Itachi and Ino, but he'd be with _Naruto_ again. He vaguely remembered that he was technically still a Genin, and scowled at the thought.

Once he'd gotten his chakra back under control he'd have to rectify that. The exams wouldn't be that far away now would they? It was nearly the end of august, so that would put the exams in December – he could get back in shape in four months with ease.

"Are we going to go up from the coast or cut directly across the country?" he asked when there was finally a free moment in the conversation being held by the three Jinchuriki.

"From the coast – taking the trek through the grasslands will take too long, and the route from the coast is more direct anyway, providing the trail from Whirlpool Country is still intact. I haven't been there since it was destroyed, so it might be abandoned now.…" Killer Bee told him, after a brief moments thought as he considered the geography himself.

Whirlpool Country?

"I've never heard of that country... does it have a ninja village?" he asked, racking his brains in search of a familiar county.

"It was destroyed in the third war – it used to have a village, but it's known as Wave Country now. Deidara's mother was a refugee from Whirlpool Country, I think" Yugito clarified, her words instantly bring up the memory of his first mission out of the village.

It had taken about three days to reach Wave Country, but they'd had to cross the water to the island itself then, and that had taken up nearly the entirety of one day. Two days maybe? Perhaps a bit longer – he didn't know how far it was to the trail itself.

"I know that trail... it was my first mission, so I remember it pretty well. It's about two days from Konoha. How long will it take to get to the main route?" he asked – all these questions kept spilling from his lips, a sign of his eagerness and impatience to get back home.

Killer Bee gave him a speculative look for a few moments, before grinning widely at him and ruffling his hair with one hand – he shrunk away from it with a scowl of irritation on his face.

"He's like Deidara – cute as long as you catch him without the gab, or frown in his case" he joked to Yugito.  
"How far?" he repeated, glaring at the snickering man.

"About half a day – if it wasn't so dark you'd probably be able to see the country flatten out completely and start to get more... tree-ish." Yugito told him, giving her fellow ninja a thwack to the back of the head.

A half day? That was it? If that was true, he could be back in Konoha after a day and a half instead of two! He had been with Tazuna last time, and civilians couldn't walk as fast as ninja. Without a client to hold him back and the better speed that had come with three years of ageing, he'd be able to use the trees and get up to his fastest pace.

In under two days and he'd see Naruto again, Itachi, Ino, his grandparents, the others from his graduating class, Kakashi. Heck he'd be glad to see _Tsunade_ again. He'd even be glad to see those wrinkled old prunes the village called councillors...

"You two need to get some sleep – you've been pushing yourselves for almost two straight days, your chakra systems have seen better days, and it's been a long trek down from the mountains." Yugito instructed, pointing a finger to the sleeping rolls that had been laid out earlier.

He didn't object, and followed Fuu, collapsing gratefully onto the spongy material. Yugito, he had noticed, was a lot like Iruka, albeit more restrained and less vocal. She could even be a teacher at Kumogakure's academy for all he knew.

Killer Bee he knew had a team of his own, albeit fully fledged Jonin now, but they still formed a unit for missions on occasion, and he was a master sword user. He had to be if he could use all seven of them at one time proficiently He wondered if he'd be able to get a few pointers from the man at some point.

He didn't have time to consider anything more as his eyes drooped in exhaustion, and he was lost in sleep.

* * *

"Tsunade-Sama! Tsunade-sam-"

There was a clatter and bang and a squawk as Sakura clattered into something on the other side of her office door – the girl had wholly and completely picked up Shiho's clumsiness as she had trained under the woman. It was a miracle it hadn't passed onto her field skills.

There was a clatter as the door was thrown open, and Sakura rushed forward waving a scroll in the air frantically, trying to get her words out, but failing from the absence of breath.

"Sakura calm down, and breathe" Tsunade told her in a very matter of fact tone – she had found that excitement or hysterics could be handle with a sharp tone or even a slap if necessary, but breathing usually worked better.

Sakura obeyed, and once she managed to get her breathing under control, she held the scroll out, bending offer and leaning on one knee with the other arm, talking deep gulps of air as she spoke one word.

"Raikage...!"

The scroll was in her moments later, and as she read the messy scrawl of the Raikage himself (that surprised her – communications between the Kages were usually very official and written with scribes), her eyes slowly widened.

She stood up from her chair and stared at the short scroll in her hand, then at the map on the wall of her office, and then back to Sakura.

"You're sure this is accurate? You're absolutely certain?" she demanded of the still short-of breath girl.

Sakura nodded, still breathing heavily.

"I ran the codes...to see if... it was a different message and I cross... examined the handwriting... I even had the... Falconers do a blood check on the... messenger pigeon that brought it. As far as I can tell that's... one hundred percent..."

Tsunade scanned the note on the scroll one again – specifically the date. The message had been sent at the beginning of the week. She knew the terrain in that part of the continent well, having travelled the area with Shizune for some time. If this Killer Bee person was really that close to the border…

She glanced up at the map again – Kumogakure Ninja were never good with the forests in Fire Country, they didn't really have that many of their own. That meant they would likely take the old Whirlpool route, the one that came up from Wave Country...

"A day... A day...! Sakura, are you booked for any missions this week?"  
Sakura shook her head.

"Good, it about_ time _this place had some good news; go get Shikamaru – don't tell anyone about this, especially not Naruto, I don't want her blundering out of here like a bull seeing red just yet. Are there any missions to Wave to pick up the timbers for reconstruction?"

Sakura nodded again.

"Good, you can go under that – I think we'll send Kakashi with you...Kiba too – if his reaction to the seal was anything like Juugo's and Naruto's, he'll need the treatment! Go! Go prepare for this! And remember, not a soul!" she instructed, before giving her second assistant a playful smirk.

Sakura's answering grin was enough for her.

* * *

It was strange waking up with the pictures of her father and mother next to the ones of her own team, beside the pot of carnations. It was new, but she supposed it was a good way to wake up. Naruto still felt like something was missing though and she knew what it was.

Dreary thoughts plagued her mind in spite of the niceness as she pulled on her usual dress (now cleaned, and with new mesh), and began to scarf down some cereal; He had told her he would have Sasuke back by the end of the month. The end of the month was in a few days, and Sasuke wasn't exactly making his existence known was he?

God, she was an idiot. She was for Sasuke any way, a really, really stupid idiot. She was more stupid than Itachi was when Ino came into the equation; she had been a fool to believe that man, an utter fool.

A knock at her door distracted her, and she opened it to find Sakura standing on the doorstep. That raised an eyebrow – Sakura didn't usually stop by her flat. She hadn't even known Sakura knew where it was. Well, she did, but she still never came by.

"What is it Sakura?" she asked, a little curious despite the confusion.

"Tsunade-sama has assigned us a mission with Shikamaru and Kiba – we have to go pick up some timbre for the reconstruction on the Uchiha compound, boring, but apparently it's for the huge training ground, so it's kind of important."

Urgh. Mission. She didn't want to go, but the work on the training grounds was horribly slow, and the remaining clan members needed the public training ground – they couldn't get near the one in the main house thanks to the blood seals around it (she had tried deactivating them, but they were stuck in place for good). It was one of the biggest in the village, so it didn't just get used by the Uchihas either.

Grumbling to herself, she restocked her kunai and shuriken, spare paper for her seal kit and paper bombs, pulled on her boots and left the flat with Sakura. Kiba greeted her with a wave from the back of Akamaru, beside him Shikamaru and Kakashi.

* * *

They left the village quickly, not even stopping by the mission room to get the documents for leaving the village apparently Raido – who guarded the gate – already knew because he just let the pass by with a wave instead of performing all the usual checks.

It felt so strange to be walking this route again – jumping through the trees by the road made movement a lot faster, but she could still see parts of the track that looked familiar. Things had been so much easier when they had been on their first mission.

Her only worry when they were walking this road had been that Tazuna was an old grump who had called them useless and things with Sasuke had been steadily getting closer together. It had been all about the mission then, even when her back got torn up.

True she had been worrying about the Kyuubi a little bit, but it had been a side worry. Everything had been so simple, now nothing felt simple. Her Sharingan... Those dreams it caused had been a motivation in the beginning, but they were driving her to the point of no return now.

Now she was making deals with Akatsuki, Kyuubi was a complete asshole, she had Uchiha ancestors pretending to be other already dead ancestors, the clan was almost completely wiped out, Jiraiya was dead, and Sasuke was... nothing was simple any more.

"Are you all right?"

She looked at the boy running along through the branches of the trees beside her warily; Shikamaru was sometimes a bit sharper than he was good for. Maybe not quite sharp enough to notice her hospitalisation was nothing to do with Kabuto and everything to do with her own choices, but still sharp.

"Just thinking is all; this brings back memories doesn't it Scarecrow?" she called out to the Jonin leading the party of ninja – Kakashi almost tripped over the branch he had landed.

"I thought you had dropped those nicknames! You haven't called me that since you were a Genin! But Yes, I suppose it does stir up a few memories." he spluttered at first, but his tone became nostalgic.

Kiba began to snort with laughter.

"She still is a Genin Kakashi-sensei! So is Ino!"  
"You shut your trap Kiba!" she snapped back at the dog-trainer irritably.

Kiba however continued to laugh as they made their way through the trees.

* * *

They did not cross the bridge into Wave Country, but he stopped for a few moments to stare at the sign that named it; Killer Bee immediately fell in to howls of laughter, but Sasuke remained silent. He hadn't known that Tazuna had named the bridge after Naruto.

The night of sleep had done wonders for him – he felt much more energized after that trek down from Lightning Country, and thanks to a couple of soldier pills, he felt almost back to normal. Sadly, that did not make his chakra control any better. He could walk on water, and use it to give his speed a boost, but that was about it.

He had tested it out by trying to make a plain old clone that morning, and it was horribly reminiscent of the ones Naruto had made before Ino had drilled some control into her. It had been limp, very pale, and it had disappeared with a simple prod.

They had set off early that morning, and Fuu was animatedly taking in the scenery. She was had been to Fire Country before, but never this far down, nor to Konoha itself. Killer Bee and Yugito stuck to the grass below them, but he was going at the fastest speed possible with his dodgy chakra through the trees.

They may not be comfortable in the trees but he felt right at home in them – Konoha didn't get its name from the scenery. He was surprised that the houses weren't actually built into the trees themselves for how close they were. Kids played in those trees, learning how to flick between them without chakra like monkeys before entering the academy.

A brief thought about Suigetsu's strange nickname flickered to him as he leapt from the branches to another without even thinking; Konoha was a very compassionate village, the other villages weren't nearly so caring with their ninja, and now, thinking on how odd and how stupid it was to watch his companions running along the ground below him, he finally figured out why all the other villages called Konoha ninjas _'Tree Huggers'._

It was a stupid thought, and he didn't really know why it had chosen to explain itself now, so he ignored it and pushed on through the trees with Fuu beside him – she was another ninja who snorted at the thought of using the ground when there were perfectly good trees nearby.

The sun was blaring hot at the hours around midday, and he was certain that they had covered half the journey to the village – this looked like the place they had been attacked by those mist Chunin on the mission with Tazuna. He passed it without a thought – his aim was Konoha – and intended to continue his journey till all three of his companions suddenly stopped.

"What? What is it?" he asked, hand going to the sword on his back, glancing around for a sign of enemy ninja.

No one answered him until Fuu recovered from her shock, shook it from her head and spoke two words.

"Naruto's here!" she murmured, completely surprised by the fourth demonic presence somewhere in the area.  
"Looks like my brother's message got through; Tsunade must have sent a scout team to- Sasuke!"

Sasuke ignored Killer Bee's calls as he darted past the man without a second thought; those two words had him racing ahead, pushing as much chakra to his feet as his meagre control would allow, quickly leaving his companions behind as he darted through the branches.

* * *

"Sakura, slow down will ya? I know they want the wood, but is it really this urgent?" Kiba complained from the back of the party.

They hadn't stopped once since leaving early that morning, and the only ones not tired were Naruto and Kakashi; Kiba had been forced to dismount Akamaru and jump along side the dog once his weight began to slow the animal down. Even Sakura, who was leaving a gaping hole between herself and the rest of the team, was near to exhaustion.

"Tsunade-sama was insistent Kiba!" she called back.

Naruto had to agree with Kiba – that training ground was important, but it wasn't _that_ important. She too felt some confusion at Sakura's haste. She was about to ask what was so important about it herself she felt the familiar feeling of two chakras forcibly merged together into one being.

She stopped on the branch she was and her jaw fell agape, drawing the whole team to a halt. She heard Kakashi asking questions, but she was too busy concentrating on the massive presence of demon chakra to answer them. It couldn't be one demon – she held the largest demon of the nine. Concentrating, she could make out three separate presences, all amassed together in one group.

One was a significant amount stronger than Gaara, but still nothing on her own demon. The other two though... those were much closer. Could it possibly be...? She was concentrating so hard on confirming the hosts of the demons she almost missed the pulse of uncontrolled, but familiar chakra racing towards them.

It was impossible – how on earth had he escaped from Orochimaru? Even if the seal had been removed... It had to be her imagination! It had to be...

A stiffening from Kakashi and a gasp from Kiba were all she needed to know that it was _not_ her imagination, and that was all she needed before she took off through the branches, ignoring the protests of her team-mates.

She felt the branches whipping at her face and tugging on her skin as she crashed through them without the usual care that avoided trails being left in her wake. With every leap, every landing, she could get a clearer impression of it; there was no question now.

Sasuke was somewhere in front of her,_ somewhere_ amongst these trees, and he knew she was in the area if the pace of those chakra bursts were anything to go by. He wasn't even trying to control the output of his chakra as he drew closer and closer.

_He_ really had gotten him back before the month was out. That thought told her that now she really was stuck doing what he wanted, but it was fleeting, and inconsequential._ Sasuke_ was somewhere in front of her! He was still _alive!_

Her eyes flickered every which way, searching the surrounding trees for his face, back, anything, even as she concentrated on those uncontrolled bursts of chakra. Where was he? He was _nearby!_ She could_ tell _he was nearby – horribly close, but she still couldn't_ see_ him! It would help if the trees were less dense...

Her ears caught the sound of twigs being broken rather harshly in the distance, further into the thicker part of the trees at the edge of the road where small shrubs grew beneath them.

She darted towards the noise, pulling up her Sharingan to search the thick underbrush for chakra, any chakra, as she crashed through the branches, feeling the sting of the scratches they left behind, then the sting of the Kyuubi as it healed them.

"Naruto!"

That voice, that was _Sasuke's_ voice – she looked around in front of her until her eyes glued on pale skin and dark hair heading towards her. It seemed to take forever before she crashed into him, toppling them both branched to the leaf litter floor below them.

She could smell his hair – it smelled like sweat and dirt that came from days of non-stop travel, but it was the same - and feel the weight of his arms on her shoulders; they were shaking as he pulled her towards him with a certain firmness, but most of all she could feel the hammer of his heart against his ribcage.

It was _beating_, it was alive, _he_ was alive, this wasn't like that horrible illusion, he was _alive_, and he was _here_, he wasn't being infected with Orochimaru any more, he was back. He was back, and it was going to _stay_ that way this time.

"You're really here this time... this is actually real isn't it?" she mumbled into his shoulder.

The arm around her back tightened in silent response; she broke off to get a look at his face, an actual look instead of that blur. It was as pale as ever, his eyes just as dark, it was dirty from travel, and he looked exhausted, but it was calm, full of relief instead of that grotesque pain.

She could feel her hands shaking as she ran them over either side of his cheeks, through the black hair that hung either side of them; she could feel the grease and dirt, and the coarse smoothness of his skin, the soft wire of his hair that had always baffled her.

She could put her fingers on him. He was actually there; she had barrelled into him, and now he was stuck beneath her having fallen from the branches above them. This was no illusion, or fabrication of her mind, or his mind, or a memory. He was really here.

"I'm not imagining this... This is really real isn't it? You're really here? You're real this time?"

She felt his hands on either side of her head, one of them twisting into her ratty hair that had almost burst free from its ties in her mad rush through the canopy of trees. She could feel his breath – harsh from his own exertion – on her face.

She reached up the grasp the hands on either side of her face, and felt the harsh grip on her own fingers; calloused, and shaking as much as her own. His forehead pressed against hers – she could feel sweat on it, damp and cold on warm skin – and stared directly into his eyes.

They were as dark as ever – she could barley see the black of his pupils against the dark deep grey surrounding them. This was all real. Everything in front of her was solid, could be felt. The crease in his eyebrows, the way his eyes looked over her face, only Sasuke could look at her like that. No illusion or memory or clone would _ever_ be able to replace the real thing.

She slung her arms around his neck as the tears welled up and hid her eyes on his shoulder, scarred but completely free from the black mark that had marred the pale skin the last time she had seen him; just because he could probably hear and feel the tears as they leaked onto his neck didn't mean he had to see them.

There were only a few times he had actually seen her cry, there were very few times anyone had actually seen it, and that wouldn't change. She had believed crying was for weaklings when she was a green Genin, and she still did, but in a completely different way.

"Does this feel anything but real?" he mumbled, burying his own face in her neck.  
_...I told you he'd be back – just make sure to keep up your end of the deal when I call again Naruto..._

The tightening of her arms and the sound of a sob being kept in check was her only reply.

* * *

It took some effort to pry them apart, but Sakura and Kiba (_'_Kiba's_ a medic?'_) had given him a once over and healed a few spots that Yugito had missed. She, Fuu, and Killer Bee had caught up themselves, and she had raised an appreciative eyebrow for finding the thing she had missed.

Once they were done, they started the journey to Konoha itself – though Naruto did take a few moments to yell at Sakura for not telling her what the mission had really been for, and to reacquaint herself with Killer Bee, Yugito, and Fuu. Their pace had forced the Kumogakure ninjas into the trees with them, and the journey was proving to be a short one.

Shikamaru had always been an easy going person, and had never experienced the emotion called jealousy, until Naruto walked into the picture. He didn't know her as well as Sasuke in the beginning – they had been close friends, and it had always been hard to drag them away from each other in the academy - but he had been certain he knew her now.

Since she had returned from her training with Jiraiya, he had noticed the difference the first time he had seen her again; while she wasn't so quick to dive into things, she still made some stupid decisions. One of those was pushing herself after Sasuke so much.

She wasn't the kind of person who could handle that sort of separation well, and that had become apparent after he had over heard Tsunade's conversation with Jiraiya, Itachi, and Inochi. He had been gob smacked when his investigations had revealed Sasuke as her brother, but he had felt a brief momentary hope there.

Everyone but Naruto, and to a lesser degree Ino and Itachi, had been convinced that Sasuke was a lost cause, and he had thought that, given time, the separation and eventual realisation that he wasn't going to come back would have been enough to make her look in his direction, heck, the direction of any guy other than her absent sibling, and finally give her own mind some peace.

He had seriously underestimated just how much she was willing to put herself through for him; when Inoro had told him about what Kabuto had done to her he had been horrified. He knew her dreams were not healthy, but to allow Kabuto to take control of the Kyuubi and turn it against her, just by telling her that what everyone had known was coming?

He couldn't begin to understand it, not a single part. He supposed it had something to do with the fact that Sasuke was different in her view to his own of her; Sasuke wasn't just someone she was in love with, he was her blood sibling. Half maybe, but still genetically linked.

He couldn't begin to understand how she could feel the way she did for him, especially when he had found out she had been aware of it all since months after graduating, but he understood her desperation a little better. He still didn't comprehend it, but it was right in front of him as the made their way through the trees towards the village.

She was holding herself back, not wanting to show it front of the rest of the group, but she hadn't once moved more than a foot away from him – the most had been when Kiba and Sakura had given him a medical check.

She kept the conversation to the goings on in Konoha, filling him in on what he had missed, but her hand was curled into a fist at her side, digging into the fabric of her fingerless, plated gloves to keep it from straying across the short gap to his.

Her eyes though, were the most obvious; they never left him. She was a skilled enough ninja to keep up their pace without a proper look, and her eyes were tracing every line every blemish on his face as they moved on ahead of him, keeping up the public chatter with a grin on her face.

Not one movement escaped her eyes, and as vexing as that was, what was worse was the look she was getting in return. Sasuke had always had a good head on his shoulders and he had thought that, with time, he would have long since given up on her – if he had been alive at all.

Sasuke had never been very fond of the girls in the academy – he hadn't even known who Naruto was until she had been entered into the boys class, and he hadn't been very impressed then. They had become friends, but he had put that down to her relation with his father.

Sasuke was a quiet person who didn't seem to like too much excitement, and was barley social – he hadn't believed Sasuke would maintain interest in her for long, especially when he found out their exact relationship. He sometimes wondered if he even knew her that well.

He had thought Sasuke would have shaken the confusion and remain a simple relative if he ever managed to escape Orochimaru. He had been mistaken; Sasuke had been with them perhaps three hours now, but the soft frown that had been on his face since discovery was a clear indication he had notice the same changes in her that he had.

He knew that Naruto had briefly been reunited with him after the mission to rescue Gaara, and he wasn't dumb enough to think he had not noticed the changes in her then, but there was something else. There was something she had momentarily revealed only to him that caused that frown.

He didn't put up a word of complaint at her babble as he might have when they were twelve and thirteen; he was absorbing every single word, even as he watched her from the corner of his eyes, and it had nothing to do with what she was actually telling him.

He could see the beads of sweat on his face as they maintained pace, but he still kept up with her with a pig-headed determination he would never have expected from him; Sasuke may have been a private person, but it was easy to see the emotion in his actions if you looked for them, and they were not the strictly sibling ones he had been presuming.

Ino had told him he was barking up the wrong tree, as had her brother, and Sakura – who even now kept an unseen gaze on him, watching him realise what had been obvious to everyone else – he just hadn't seen it, even though he had known it was there. He had never believed it.

Now though, seeing it right in front of him, it wasn't hard to see he had never been in the running in the first place.

* * *

Sakura watched as he gave one small sigh, letting his shoulders slump by a fraction – the only sign of any acceptance from him – and upped her pace till she was standing beside him.

"Just so you know, I don't think it would have mattered if Sasuke had been around or not – you're just not the kind of guy she would look at in that way. I don't know her as well as Ino does, but I know her enough to say she's never been normal, and I don't mean the Kyuubi." she told him quietly.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her statement, not expecting anyone to have noticed his silent turmoil.

"The Kyuubi is a factor but... you're too logical. You've never understood why she could keep pushing herself when she knew about all the problems it was giving her – I don't mean the reason, I mean the decision itself."

He frowned; she was right, and he knew it. He understood that certain emotions could make people go to hell and back for the right person, but he would never have dived in head-first without considering the consequences the way Naruto did. He would plan everything down to the very last detail.

"Sasuke is logical in his own way, but he can make those kinds of decisions too, and it has nothing to do with being related – you can't make them even if you like to think you can. You're just too safe for her Shikamaru" she finished quietly.

The sight of Konoha's gates distracted her, and she moved on ahead after a short reassuring grin to meet the awaiting Hokage with Kiba and the two front runners, but Shikamaru let his eyes follow her, pondering the slow relief that her words had given him.

* * *

_**God, how long has it been since I updated this story? It feels like forever. I haven't written anything for it in months, but what I did in future chapters write sorta happened in the manga - I was all, **_**'H****oly shit I'm Psychic!'**_**. It's weird, because my two of my great-grannies were both kinda Psychic, supposedly, and one of them read tarot cards. Supossedly runs in the family, but I kinda doubt it... **_

_**Well, the reunion is finally here for real. I can't promise that there will be an update anytime soon, but I will try. I've lost track of what I was going to do with this story thanks to the manga (damn you and your new stash Kishi!). Loose plot ends will begin to tie together in the next few chapters though.**_

_**Oh and if there were any spelling errors in this, it's because I wanted to get this chapter up, and rushed the check. I've left this story all alone for too long... Poor ADG...**_

_**Hope you liked the chapter!**_  
_**Nat.**_  
_**xxx**_


	18. Mad Moments

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

* * *

**ACT II: SCENE XVIII  
~ MAD MOMENTS ~**

* * *

Ino sighed in frustration, leaning back against the framework of the open gateway.

Naruto was right – she and Itachi were making a hash of things almost for the fun of it. She understood why it drove Naruto up the wall; compared to her and Sasuke, they had it easy.

No social stigma, no freako Sharingan, no insane rouges after their bodies – compared to Naruto and Sasuke, they were walking a freaking rainbow. All she had to put up with was her own stubbornness and Itachi's... stupid mode. That was probably a little vexing, or at minimum envy-worthy, to her best friend.

She glanced around at the party of ninjas who were also waiting at the gate – Choji, Inoro, Hinata, Shino, Sai, Juugo, Shizune and Tsunade. Most of them were like her – standing around with nothing but complete confusion on their faces. If Itachi had been fit to move on his own, he would be here too, and likely frying his brain trying to figure out what Tsunade was thinking.

They had been standing around waiting for something for almost two hours now, and her patience was fast running out. Itachi's bandages had to be changed on a strict rota – three times every twenty-four hours – and he was due another to see him through till late evening.

But no! Tsunade had to drag each and every ninja from every side of the village down to the gates. Geez, Naruto and Sakura were lucky to have a mission, even if it was a stuffy old D-Rank. She glanced back to Tsunade and frowned.

She had almost dragged her by the hospital room by her ponytail with impatience; she was chewing her thumbnail anxiously, but he had the firm set of the shoulder that only came from a sort of smug satisfaction. What on earth was going on?

She glanced back towards the sprawling mass of trees that surrounded Konoha, and groaned again.

"Tsunade-sama, what are we all doing here? Itachi has a rota I need to keep to!"  
"Just be patient Ino – you'll like this, trust me. Hinata, can you see anything with your Byakugan?"

Hinata, who was beginning to as sceptical as Ino (and that was saying something) pulled her hands together, activating the chakra in her eyes, forcing the veins to distend beneath her skin. Inoro, who had be slumped on the ground beside Ino, let out a groan of frustration.

"Tsunade-sama, I don't mean to be rude, but you've had Hinata look around four times already! If there was something to be seen, don't you think she'd have told us already?" he asked, flopping backwards onto the dirt.

"You be quiet, Hinata?"

Hinata frowned deeply, searching for something, anything that might be able to ease their leader's peace of mind. The lines in her eyes had just began to dim when she finally caught something on the corner of her far extended vision.

"I can see some ninja approaching the village... one... two... four... seven... maybe nine people? They're moving pretty fast, so I can't make them out too clearly, but I think one of them is a Kumogakure ninja... he's wearing the white vest... I'd say there going to be here in... ten minuets tops. They're really moving fast..."

Ino watched the smug grin widen across Tsunade's face as Hinata spoke – they were all waiting for a Kumogakure ninja? Why the bloody hell were they all waiting for a Kumogakure ninja? Ties were a little strenuous with Kumogakure thanks to the second war and all the attempts to steal Konaha's bloodlines over the years.

Ino's eyes, like those of the others, were staring on the dirt track leading out into the forest and the nearby trees, waiting till what Hinata could see entered their own more limited field of vision. Her mind however was in other areas, probing outwards with her chakra, she searched without that limitation.

She could feel her brother trying to do the same thing, but the sweat on his forehead told her was not having an easy task of it. She concentrated, trying to pick up any familiar signals; she could feel something vast, very vast within the group even if she couldn't pick out the individual minds just yet.

It felt like... the Kyuubi. It felt exactly like that, only much bigger. In fact, she could feel the Kyuubi itself amongst it. She furrowed her eyes concentrating on the vastness. It wasn't one thing, it was several large things including the Kyuubi – which meant Naruto.

"I can feel the Kyuubi, and maybe about... three other demons in that group"

"What? Three?" Choji gasped, dropping his bag of crisps.

Ino nodded, keeping up her concentration as a group of black shapes became visible amongst the dense branches. She could feel the chakra now; it was easy to pick out the tiny malignant traces in Naruto's and the three other Jinchuriki.

The rest were easily recognisable; Sakura, Kiba, Sai, Kakashi-sen...

Her eyes widened at the last presence, and she pushed her mind out again. She heard a gasp from Hinata, and turned to look at the smug face of her mentor with disbelieving hope in her eyes.

"You... you... please tell me you knew! If that's my imagination, I'll kill you Hokage or no Hokage!"

Tsunade grinned at her.

"Sakura decode a message from the Raikage last night – his brother, I believe his name is Killer Bee, found him and one of the other Jinchuriki Naruto knows wandering around the fjords in the lower mountains of Lightning Country about a week or so ago, and led them back to home turf"

Ino was still half convinced she was as crazy as Naruto, and stubbornly shook her head.

"Even if it worked, the process would have made using chakra so early impossible! They couldn't have gotten out before-"

"There's an explanation for that too Ino, a complicated, very confusing one, but an explanation all the same... at least I think there is..." Tsunade frowned.

Deidara had disappeared from the face of the earth until the Akatsuki began popping up out of nowhere. He had completely vanished, and she had thought him dead for a long time until he had kidnapped and aided in killing Gaara during his extraction.

Now, according to the Raikage, who had been told by his brother (a Jinchuriki himself), Deidara was breaking out not only Orochimaru's most anxiously awaited host, but his Jinchuriki too? What on earth was the boy doing?

She had found it hard to believe the Raikage hadn't simply ordered his brother to kill Sasuke the first chance he got and take his eyes. The man wasn't exactly known for being friendly with other nations.

If it had just been killer bee, she would have understood given he and Naruto had become acquainted during her years with Jiraiya, and from what she had heard on the grapevine, Jinchuriki tended to stick out for one another, even if they hated the others guts.

That Roshi and Han from Iwagakure certainly weren't on he best of terms according to Jiraiya, but apparently Roshi had been chomping at the bit when Han had been captured an had his demon extracted. She could understand that, but the fourth Raikage? Not so much.

Ino was completely unaware of the thoughts in her mentor's mind, she had turned towards the path again, and could now see the faces, clearly feel the chakra of their owners. There was no mistaking the crackling fiery buzz of that chakra, nor that hair, nor those eyes.

Before she had turned her sights on Itachi, Ino had been a very dedicated Sasuke-stalker – she knew that face, and that face was Sasuke's. He was alive. He had escaped. He was running right beside Naruto, and if there was only one person who could confirm it, it would be her.

That look. That was all the confirmation she needed. Naruto had never once looked at anyone but Sasuke like that. No one. And she didn't mean after Orochimaru had dragged him off. That look had been there before, muted certainly, but it had been there.

No more doubt in her mind she darted out of the gates, running to meat him and Naruto as they ran for the gates themselves, followed closely by Kiba and Sakura (the girl had a familiar smug grin on her face). For once Sasuke was not an emotional retard and actually returned the affection when she barrelled into him.

"It worked! You're alive! You're not snake-pedo reincarnated!"

the squeeze on her shoulders was brief, and once it was over she let go of him, and began to drag him towards the gate, her feet barley touching the ground.

"Itachi, Itachi! You have to see him! Then you'll have to be admitted, but you have to see him!"  
"Ino, stop dragging me – I can walk by myself!"

Ino dropped his arm sheepishly as they headed through the gates.

* * *

Itachi stared at the face of his brother in shock for the longest amount of time that anyone who was not direct family or close to it had ever seen before returning to his usual calm. The hug was brief – far briefer than the one Ino had shared with him – not even close to the one with Naruto – but the white knuckled strength in their grip was enough to get the message across.

"What happened to you?" Sasuke asked him, staring at the drip, bandages and few remaining half-healed scratches that covered his brother's chest.

The snarling noise that emerged from the back of Ino's throat both surprised and alarmed him, but it was the crease hidden by the snicker from Naruto that caught his attention.

"Someone we thought was Madara attacked us on the way back to Konoha with Juugo; things were very touch and go for a whi-"

"Touch and go? _Touch and go?_ Naruto was stuck in an illusion, no-one could hit the damn guy, and then you went into stupid mode! You almost died! That's not _touch and go_!" Ino snapped irritably.

He flicked his eyes between the Itachi and Ino, watching whatever it was that passed between them; Ino seemed to have lost control of herself, and as far as he knew she hadn't changed so much that it was a regular thing. In fact, she seemed rather flustered at the loss of control.

Naruto had been jabbering that Ino and Itachi had been dancing around each other for ages, but he hadnt really been paying attention to her words as they had approached the village.

"If it upsets you so much isn't that all the more reas-"  
"Oh no! We are_ not_ talking about _that!_ You're going to have to try better than that Itachi!"

He was utterly lost; Itachi seemed a little frustrated, and Ino was blushing. Ino never blushed, or did she now? Another glance at Naruto had her with her head in her hands, clearly a gesture of resignation.

"You two are so _stupid_..." she muttered.

He couldn't see any traces of that frown on her face that had been there moments ago.  
"Madara? Isn't he our ancestor?" he asked Itachi, frowning in confusion.

He looked at Naruto again and found that slight crease in her eyebrows, almost like a wince. He shrugged it off when he remembered the resurgence technique he had placed on her during the invasion – anyone who could do that so easily was bound to make her a little jittery. He was still confused though.

"Who knows? First he was dead as door nails, then he shows up in the invasion, but then Sakura says he's lying in the morgue, who really _knows_ any more?" Ino asked, throwing her hands up into the air, waving a roll of fresh bandage all over the place.

He watched as Ino began to change the dressings, seals, and bandages on his brother's injuries – it seemed his guess that Ino was a medic was right, and judging by the look of those seals she had hold of, probably a good one. He watched as she finished with the bandages, and seemed to glare at something on his face.

He blinked when she began flicking the fringe covering Itachi's eyes back towards the side of his face; it wasn't the action that startled him, but the look on Itachi's face that told him he didn't object to it at all. He looked like it had been deliberate...

"Did you find anything in your dad's books that helped with those scrolls?" Itachi asked Naruto, shifting his legs to make room on the bed for Ino – Sasuke blinked again.

"A few things, but nothing that helped make sense of them, familiar seals that I haven't got the hang of yet. I'll have to take them with me when I go to Mt. Myoboku, see if I can't boost my level a few grade's while I'm there... Those things are beginning to bug me..." Naruto muttered in reply, a grumpy tone in her voice.

"That'll have to wait though – Tsunade has you booked in the day after tomorrow for the operation..." Ino reminded.

His eyes widened at the words operation; what was wrong with Naruto? Had Madara... or was he Madara? Had he gotten to her when Itachi was injured somehow?  
Or was it something else?

"What operation?"

He didn't like the shifty looks they were giving each other in reply to the question one bit. Ino opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it, frowning, trying to think of how to explain the answer. Naruto gave him a glance of her own, seeming to pick the confusion from his eyes in that one look, before standing up.

"I have to go visit Tsunade – she said she wanted to talk to me and Sasuke once we were done here. Sasuke, you coming? I think she wants to talk about how you ended up with Killer Bee..." she asked, standing up from her seat on the window sill and stretching before heading for the door.

* * *

The relief to get out of the room was instantaneous, and he quickly nodded, standing from his own chair. He followed her down the hallways of the hospital, trying to ignore the whispers of surprise from the people they passed. He didn't feel right about all this. He should have listened when Naruto had been filling him in.

Nothing was the same. He had been naïve to think it would be; three, almost four years now, had passed without him. Things were bound to have changed. Nothing felt controllable. It was all new, all foreign in a way, which was complete nonsense. He had grown up in this village – it should be the opposite.

Naruto's fingers interlinked with his own, gripping tightly.

"A lot of things have changed and... I know it's not the same thing but when my memory started improving, it was... unpleasant. I couldn't keep control of that..."

Something about her tone niggled at him, but he was paying more attention to her words, and the reassuring grip on his hand. It was a relief to know that at least that hadn't changed. She knew what all this new information was like, and how overwhelming it could be, but that wasn't what had made her notice his discomfort.

"You'll catch up – it'll take a while, but you'll catch up all the same. We'll all get the Chunin exams out of the way, and then Ino and Itachi'll get their freaking act together and stop being stupid and ... I dunno, but it's somewhere to aim for."

Ino and Itachi. He didn't really know if he had expected Itachi to fall prey to Ino, but then again he wasn't surprised either. Ino was never one to do things half-way.

"What were they talking about? What operation was Ino talking about?" he asked as they left the hospital and headed in the direction of the Hokage's office – Naruto's had was still almost too-tightly intertwined in his own.

The growl of frustration was obvious to him, if the free hand she used to massage her head was not enough of an indication – he noticed a flinch at the second half of his question though.

"...just give me the short version for now."

Naruto stared at him for a few moments, then took a deep breath.

"They got close, but then after that mess in rice country they got too close waaay to fast – if you follow me – and then Itachi got confused, and Shisui and I had to do an intervention before he made things worse, then it got cleared off, then Itachi..."

She frowned, trying to find the words. Sasuke's head was somewhat swimming – Itachi? Itachi?  
Ino, he could understand Ino, but Itachi? Itachi?

"...he jumped in front of the technique 'Madara' was aiming at Ino, and then she freaked out again because he nearly died, then a few days ago he went..."

She frowned again, and her new notion somehow seemed to irritate her more than the thought of Itachi jumping in front of something potentially (and by the looks of it very nearly) fatal did.

"...I dunno, he thought he made sense, but Ino completely freaked out again. Cuz he thought it was logical to get married, and because she freaked out she said no. Then she freaked out some more _because_ she said no, but she can't take it back because she's stubborn..."

"This is the _short version?_" he asked incredulously, turning down onto the main road leading to the Hokage's tower.  
"All emotional stuff and details removed for your easier digestion" Naruto muttered, somehow managing to sound envious.

God, if that was the short version he didn't know if he wanted to know the long version, or the medium version for that matter. Maybe he'd be better off learning that one as he went along. He caught sight of the Hokage's office – much closer and decided to get to the question that had really been the one to bother him.

"What operation was Ino talking about?" he asked.

That made her stop walking, his hand tugging on hers as he continued forward till he felt the tug. She was looking around warily at the people around them, almost... almost paranoid? No, this was probably something she just didn't want the villagers to hear.

"I'll explain more later but... that _thing_ that made, makes, everything _weird_, it's being locked away. It's... It's getting to the point where its not... good. So very, _very_, not good." she muttered quietly, starting to walk towards the tower again.

He didn't know what kind of not good this could be; he remembered what Ino had told him about the last time he had seen her, but it didn't sound like it was just that.

He'd heard of bloodlines being sealed away before, but that was usually because of bloodline poisoning, or illnesses that could damage them, or because the bloodline was interfering with treatment of something else. Was she sick because of the Sharingan?

"Not good?" he asked as they came up to the red building.  
"So very not good" she muttered again as she pushed her way through the door to the tower.

* * *

Naruto was not in the greatest of moods to be listening to Tsunade. Ever since Sasuke had asked about the operation, and she had given him her reply, Madara had been making snide little remarks and mutterings in her ear, and now she had a headache.

She didn't want to have a headache right now, because Tsunade was talking about how Deidara – her freaking Akatsuki brother – had pulled out her other brother from the snarly claws of one of his Akatsuki chums. Deidara. _Deidara!_

"Sasuke, it was Deidara's message bird that got you message to us in the first place; did he tell you anything about what he's planing?" Tsunade asked.

Sasuke shook his head.

"He confused me – he took it on himself to give me those, and told me to send a message to him if anything started to go wrong, but he said that the organization was aiming in the right place, albeit a bit misguided, then he blew me out of the cell and then... I think he was actually _flirting_ with Fuu when he broke her out...! I really _don't_ understand him..."

_...Just keep in mind the only reason he managed that in time was because I let him hear key conversations; this doesn't clear you up Naruto..._

"That _is_ a bit contradictory..." Inochi agreed – seeming to have filled in for Jiraiya as Tsunade's partner in these discussions.

_'Shut up! I know that! You'll get your damn favour when you ask for it! Just bugger off!' _she replied silently – it took more effort than openly replying, and concentration, but it didn't make her look crazy (she_ really_ couldn't look crazy right now).

She didn't look at Sasuke – she couldn't because every time she looked at him now all she could see was blood pooling from vacant eye sockets. Instead she was trying with as much discrepancy as she could to dislodge the image from her mind with chakra. It wasn't working.

"And you say you don't know what he's planning?" Tsunade asked, her eyes going to Killer Bee looking slightly hopeful.

The Kumo ninja spread his hands.

"I don't think he's in it for the sucking the demons out, but I have no idea. I've known him since he was a kid, but that's the one thing he won't utter a word about" he replied, sounding a little frustrated himself.

Tsunade frowned and stared out of the window, moderately displeased with the answer killer bee had given her.  
"Would you mind staying for a few more days before you take Fuu back to Takigakure? I think if we have your input, we might be able to make more sense of this..." she asked, still staring out of the window.

"Sure thing – kid needs some medical exam according to Yugito anyway, and she's not too keen to go back to Taki either. But I don't know how I can help any more..." he replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"You know him better than we do right now. Naruto, you've seen Deidara before, has he given you any hint of what he's doing? Think hard... even the slightest thing-"

"Why the hell would he tell me anything? Why would he show me anything? Don't you think I'd have told you anything if I did know?" she snapped irritably.

_...I just wanted to be clear – I know how your mind works, and I know that your trying to get out of this every time you can make the slightest hint... _

_'Shut up! Leave me alone!'_ she hissed to herself again – it was almost impossible to concentrate. The man was directly messing around inside her head, kept giving her flashes of things she didn't want to see. She could barley look Sasuke in the eye.

How could she look at him when he was covered in blood? It was a hallucination, it was that man feeding of of her own fears she knew it, but she couldn't look at that. Not now. Not now that she finally had him back.

_...I didn't expect less really – you're a smart girl when you aren't hallucinating – but I'd be careful about how closely you dodge. You don't want to say the wrong thing... _

_'Shut Up. Stop doing that! You don't have to do that! Stop it!'_

"Naruto, I know this is confusing, but you have to tell us everything you can. You're looking at this the entirely wrong way – if Deidara really is helping us, helping you, then you're the one he would have slipped in front of" Tsunade repeated, soothingly.

"She's right Naruto – he's your brother. He's the same as me and Itachi. You should have noticed something just on that basis alone" Sasuke added, blood spilled from his eye sockets, the vacant holes staring at her, and down his cheeks.

Naruto stared at him, blinked several times, before turning away from him again. That was not happening. That wasn't real. That wasn't _Real_. _That was not Real_. She repeated it like a mantra over and over, even as she tried to concentrate on Tsunade. She probably should tell her...

"He... He told me where to find the Water base. Said he wanted to piss off Orochimaru, and gave me dad's scroll – he said he wanted a decent fight when he finally came after me, and that he wouldn't get that if I couldn't keep up..." she muttered.

"Naruto! Why didn't you tell us that?" Inochi demanded, a sounding a little displeased.  
"When was there time? Ino was freaking out, Itachi was at death's door, then..." she left it hanging, still not daring to look at Sasuke, or anyone directly in the eye.

"Naruto, that's no excuse! You should have told Itachi during the mission! You know that!" Tsunade berated, a little louder.

Naruto ignored her, trying to ignore the smell of metallic wet iron in the air.

"Naruto, explain this now!"

_…If you break your word, I don't have any reason to ignore Sasuke's continued life – Orochimaru will try for him again, and I can't stand that man..._

"_Shut Up!_ Just drop it all right? I didn't tell anyone for the same reason Ino didn't tell Itachi Juugo's fits were giving her a migraine miles away from it! He would have stopped the mission! I couldn't do that! It made my skin crawl, but I couldn't pass it up!"

She didn't know who she had been yelling at first, but she made it sound credible enough. She was aware of Sasuke's eyes boring into the back of her, completely surprised by the outburst. Tsunade was still speaking, her tone a little softer, but still admonishing.

She couldn't hear it – he was coving up the sound of her voice with strangled chokes, agonized screams from Sasuke. She couldn't block it out! Why wasn't her chakra blocking it out?

_...Because that's what will happen, you make one wrong move, and he'll die..._

Her eyes shot towards Sasuke – he was completely healthy and alive - growing wide at the sight of the orange-mask just behind his head, the smoking red hand on the arm casually draped around his shoulders.

_...You make one wrong step, and I'm at free liberty to do to him exactly what I did to Itachi, and this time I'll make sure it sticks... he continued, his hand moving towards the beating hear hidden beneath skin and clothing._

"Get your hands off him!" she snarled, her hand darting to her shuriken pouch and unleashing it.

Before she could unleash another, Killer Bee had his arms around her shoulders, restraining her, and pushing her down onto the floor as Inochi placed his hands either side of her head, hand glowing a greyish purple as he pushed chakra into her mind.

"Let me go! He's going to kill him! Let me_ go_ Bee! Get of off m-"

She blinked. He was gone. Sasuke... Sasuke! She had just...!

"Inochi!"

"I don't_ know_! I don't _know_ how he got in, but he's gone now. I'd _love_ to know how that snake rat got in without my noticing though... I didn't even _sense_ him! Not_ once_, and he must have been there for at least fifteen minuets!" he snarled, his hands still glowing on her head.

She felt killer bee let go of her, or his grip slackened. She didn't really notice; Sasuke was staring at her, confusion on his face, even a little horror, but mostly, worry.

"I've put some barriers up in your mind Naruto, but the way that rat got past me...Tthey won't last long if he tries this again – try to stay awake as long as you can, and when you do sleep, take as many of those pills as you can without overdosing yourself" he instructed.

Naruto nodded dumbly; she could hear Sasuke's low footsteps as he moved across the floorboards. She couldn't believe she had been suckered into his games again. He didn't even have to do it... Was he just trying to pass the time before he decided she was going to be of some use to him?

"I think that's enough here for one day... I suggest you get some rest Naruto – not sleep – just rest. I think I'm going to slot in the repression operation tomorrow instead of the day after"

Naruto nodded, feeling Sasuke's hands in her own, feeing herself being pulled up to her feet. He had been inside her mind, and she could have killed him herself. With a stupid little shuriken. She could have killed Sasuke with a _shuriken._

"Sasuke, don't you dare let her fall asleep – you can get the details in your own time, but I think you can see the importance – I'll be having you check in tomorrow too. I need to give your chakra network an exam."

* * *

Sasuke sat in Itachi's room after Naruto had been taken into the operating room – Naruto hadn't really been in a chatty mood after what had happened in Tsunade's office. He couldn't really blame her, but silence didn't really answer all the questions.

About all he had managed to figure out was what Naruto had told him in the first place – that whatever the Sharingan had done was very, very problematic. He had expected some changes, but he certainly hadn't been expecting this on his first night back in the village.

Thus he was in Itachi's room – he knew his brother would explain things for him. Well, most things. The short version of his excursions with Ino had been more than enough.

"After Orochimaru got his hands on you, Naruto left to train with Jiraiya, and Ino went to Tsunade - once they'd recovered from all their fighting at any rate. Naruto was gone for three years, and when she came back... I don't know when they started, but she was having Sharingan induced nightmares..." he started.

Sasuke nodded – Ino had already told him all of this in Rice Country, the first time they had been reunited, and had been a source of consternation during his imprisonment.

"As I understood it from Jiraiya, they had never been that bad before she returned home, but the same thing happened when she was a baby – after Deidara disappeared. Father believed it was the sealing then, and Jiraiya said that was when he sealed it away and altered the memories of us and the villagers" he continued.

Sasuke nodded again, feeling another kind of confusion again; if that was true, then just how powerful were Naruto's eyes? For it to be causing her problems like that even as a baby... Something was off about it, there always had been, but something bugged him all the same.

"About a week or so after we came back from Water Country with Juugo, Kabuto got inside her head – we thought she was doing better since Ino and Tsunade came up with some sleeping pills for her, but we were obviously wrong. Inochi dosen't know how he did it, but he got her as close to giving up as she could ever get."

Sasuke's face remained blank, but his mind was whirring; Kabuto had done that? _Kabuto?_ He didn't think Kabuto even knew any mental techniques. He could understand if had been a medical technique, or a strong illusion, but a mental one? Kabuto had never mouthed about his abilities, but he had never been under the impression that the man knew any mental techniques. He just knew how to manipulate people well...

"We hadn't made the virus that cured Juugo then, so he was at free liberty to use the Kyuubi – he turned it directly against her. You've felt the Kyuubi chakra before, think of it going against you from the inside out. That's what Kabuto did – he used that and the Sharingan against her because Orochimaru didn't want her coming after you..."

Ah. That made much more sense – he had experienced the control Naruto had placed on her first hand at the valley. He had felt the Kyuubi chakra eating away at his own body too – even the air around it seemed to burn when it went past a certain point.

He didn't want to imagine what had happened to Naruto. It explained how Kabuto had gotten inside her mind too – all he had to do was channel his thoughts into the link he had made four years ago.

He'd take great pleasure in breaking that man's arms and legs, then he'd give the bug to Naruto so she could castrate him. It could be a birthday present. It was her seventeenth birthday soon, if he had the date right, a couple of more months wasn't it? Hmm. Maybe it would have to be next year instead, just to make sure the bug wouldn't get away.

"We gave her the virus when we cured Juugo, but it hasn't erased the damage the Sharingan has done to her; Ino had to literally drag her out of her own mind before it all stopped and we could even get close enough to start repairing the damage the Kyuubi had done."

Sasuke frowned – Sharingan, Sharingan, Sharingan... He was beginning to form a less appreciative view of his bloodline._ Everything_ seemed to come back to that, and he hadn't told them what his own eyes had done yet. He wondered if the benefits were really worth all the problems it was giving the both of them.

"You've just seen that – she could have killed you yesterday if her aim had been bad, all because she keeps seeing things like that. I think if Ino hadn't given her those pills, she would have almost killed the both of us more than once. She_ can't_ keep living with it."

That was an understatement – that shuriken had been an inch from his own head. With any luck the sealing away of her Sharingan would help in getting rid of all these problems; the fact that he was back now would probably help too. He had been worried when Ino had told him about all of this, when he had seen her using the Kyuubi so freely, and it sounded like he'd had every right to be.

"What about you?"

Sasuke jerked at the question in surprise, but shook his head.  
"Nothing like that – a few odd bad nights is all. My Sharingan did evolve by itself though... Fuu lost control of the beetle when we reached lightning country, so I had to go into her mind to control it, and my eyes started bleeding"

Sasuke watched the slight widening of his brothers eyes, but turned his mind back to Naruto's predicament; something about it still seemed off. He supposed that was because he wasn't used to all these problems the way Itachi and Ino were – it seemed to make sense to them, and Tsunade and Inochi.

Something still felt off though.

* * *

"My god, this is so complicated... Are you sure you want us in here to do this Tsunade-Sensei? Aren't there better medics? I've never done anything this complicated before, and I'd really rather not my first shot be on Naruto..." Kiba asked, frowning at all the seals and bottles and bowls of water in the room.

They pushed Naruto into the room on the bed, then removed her from it and placed her on the operating table – she had already taken the anaesthetic, and it was enough to keep one of the giant mountain bears from earth country knocked out for three weeks.

Ino was also giving the mass of materials a wary look, but that was nothing compared to the alarm on Sakura's face; she hadn't been studying medical techniques as long as Kiba and Ino, and was looking positively horrified by the sheer amount of work the equipment implied.

"We can't afford for any of the other medics to know about this – you three aren't going to be telling any tales, besides, I've done this at least twenty times in the past. If you make a mistake I'll be able to correct it" Tsunade told her three students reassuringly.

"Ino, I want you to handle the extraction – you used it very well on Kankuro from what I hear, Kiba, you'll be working on the seals since you're used to using them in operations, and Sakura, I want you to work on the sealing solution – you have the best overall chakra control, and the balance in the solutions need to be very accurate. I'll be focusing on the repression itself."

There were three rather obvious sighs of relief at the knowledge that they would be sticking to familiar territory. Ino and Kiba immediately nodded and began picking up as much of the equipment as they would need; Sakura stood by as an assistant – her aid would not be needed until Kiba was due to start using the seals, and that wouldn't be till later.

Ino pulled a small globe of water from one of the bowls, small enough to fit in her hand, placing it directly over one of Naruto's eyes; it was very nerve racking considering she had only been reading scrolls on this operation with Kiba and Sakura a few hours ago.

She understood the urgency, considering that Naruto had almost killed Sasuke thanks to Kabuto, but really – reading and doing were two different things. She didn't like being in an operating room either – it was too finicky here, too much that she knew that could go wrong, and it took forever.

As she searched with her chakra she began to frown.

"What am I looking for? There's nothing there to take out..." she asked Looking up in confusion at her mentor.  
"That's because you aren't going to take something out this time – you want to build up the chakra veins in her eyes that trigger the activation... Ferment the chakra flowing in them..."

Ino blinked – stupid, she had read that! Of course she wasn't going to be taking anything out! The damn bloodline was being sealed _away!_

"Sakura, can you put some myrtle extract into the bowls? About three cap-fulls should be enough, it'll help her clog the veins better..." Kiba instructed, sticking together some of the paper-seals into a link, frowning at two he held in his hand, unsure as to which came next.

"Tsunade-Sensei, does the the paralysis seal come before the chakra restriction seal or after it?" he asked, finally giving up on trying to remember the three hour cramming session they had been given to memorize the specifics of the operation.

It wouldn't have been so bad if they'd had more time as originally planned, but things had gotten progressivley worse so quickly that simply hadn't had the time to get to know the ins and outs of it.

"Before – you won't be able to restrict the chakra if the flow is still free"

Kiba muttered an oath to himself, then began unfastening his chain of seals, muttering several more curses as he unravelled his work.

With the purple liquid now added to the water, it was much easier for Ino to painstakingly construct blockages in the tiny veins leading up to Naruto's iris and pupils – it wasn't as fiddly, and that was a relief. One wrong move could have turned her team-mate blind for good.

This was why she preferred a being a field medic when she could – it was just a case of healing the worst of the damage and thinking on your feet for the most part. You just healed the person enough for the people who liked all this fiddly junk and had the patience for it (like Kiba) to get the specifics done. Or sometimes just enough to keep them alive.

She wasn't suited to standing around like this – when she worked in the hospital, she made a point of working in the emergency room on busted guts and broken limbs and internal bleeding and lot and lots of gore and trauma. She couldn't stand the fiddly stuff, but she had to learn it anyway.

After at least one hour, she had finished one eye, and was very jittery. She felt a little better doing the second one whilst Tsunade checked Kiba's new link of seals. Ino was glad she didn't have to look at that part – that was even more dangerous and fiddly. If Kiba got those seals mixed up...

She shuddered to think about what all those different restriction seals would do to Naruto if they were in the wrong order. After another hour, she was finally allowed to drop her hands and leave another part – more complicated – to Tsunade.

"I hate surgeries!" she muttered, rinsing of her hands before going to help Sakura mix up the sealing solution that would be added on top of the seals – that would be the hard part. They had to keep the solution flowing so Kiba and Tsunade would be able to keep a strong hold of the restriction process itself until Naruto's Sharingan was caged up.

The longer they could keep it up, the longer Naruto would be without it. After mixing up several solutions of plant extracts, dried ingredients, and various liquids (including a notable amount of Naruto's blood), Ino left the infusion process to Sakura – after that fiddly palaver, her chakra was all over the place.

If the amount of chakra in the liquid was over or under by even a fraction, it could do just as much damage as badly-ordered seals. Sakura had sweat on her face as she adjusted the levels of chakra in the solutions, and was chewing her lip furiously, but eventually stood back taking several deep breaths of air.

The large bowls were quickly deposited on a tray beside Kiba, and he dunked his long line of seals in the liquid – it was quickly absorbed by the ink with Kiba's help, and then the long winding process began – the seals had to be as close together across Naruto's eyes as they could be.

One that was done, Ino and Sakura took their places once again, their own bowls beside them and hands ready to take out large droplets to refresh the seals. Kiba was looking at all the seals with the eyes of a startled cow until Tsunade began to focus the green glow of her hands around the seals covering Naruto's eyes.

Once Kiba put his own hands beside Tsunade's, the long five-hour process started.

* * *

"How long do you reckon she'll have without it?" Sasuke asked Ino as she came in to give another infusion to Naruto's eyes.

She gave him an inquiring look before turning back to Naruto; she had been give what seemed like every anaesthetic under the sun, so despite the three day waiting period that had passed, she had yet to wake up.

Ino looked up from the bowl of murky pink she was feeding into Naruto's eyes drop by drop, looking unsure and anxious.

"Tsunade-sama says that it's a painful process, that's why were keeping her knocked out, but..."

she frowned some more as she fed more of the liquid into Naruto's eyes with her chakra.

"...Tsunade had to take over after about three hours. It was a lot more resistant than she thought it would be. I really don't think this is going to last very long – six months, maybe seven at the most?"

"Six months? That's it? That's not going to be enough..." he mumbled half to Ino, half to himself.

"It took me an hour to make the blockages in the veins that are used to awaken the Sharingan, and I needed a booster to do it – I shouldn't have needed that Sasuke, and my job was the easiest one..." she finished, adding the last of the liquid.

What really bothered Ino was not the Sharingan itself though; when she had been building the blockages, she had noticed that Naruto's chakra was already clumped together within the veins. Normally she wouldn't have felt worried, but their was a great deal of Kyuubi chakra calmly mixing with her own.

It had been the same after Kabuto had attacked her, and she had told Tsunade, but the woman didn't seem too worried. Ino knew there was something off about it though. She could pick up the thoughts that accompanied the Kyuubi chakra and they had been...

It was like being on the edge of something, like a tip in the wrong direction would start an explosion. Something was off about it, she was certain, but Tsunade had told her she was probably imaging things... Maybe she was; maybe she had gotten so use to things taking a turn for the worst lately that she was looking for things to go wrong before they happened.

It was natural for chakra to clump together, and for Naruto's to have the Kyuubi's merging with hers was natural too, or it was for her. God, something good needed to happen before she made something go wrong by accident.

"Why'd did you say no?"

Ino jerked her head up in surprise to stare at her recently returned team-mate.

"Say no to what?" she asked, somewhat confused by the sudden question.

"Why did you say no to Itachi? I know I haven't been here to see what went on between the two of you but I know Itachi wouldn't ask that lightly" he informed her pointedly.

Ino sighed and sat down on the end of the bed – Sasuke sat, leaning back on the pillows atop the sheet beside Naruto, and confused and bordering displeased frown on his face, but then, when didn't Sasuke have a frown on his face?

"Sasuke, we haven't been on a date yet – it took a drunken fit of hormones without the drink for him to even notice that he liked me a little differently than he did when I was thirteen, and then two interventions for him to figure out the rest... I really don't think he's thinking logically right now." she replied, a hint of frustration in her voice.

"Ino you know Itachi better than I do – you know how well he thinks things through. If he thinks it's a good idea, then he thinks it's a good idea. That's it."

Ino frowned at him herself.

"Just because he _thinks_ it's a good idea, doesn't mean it _is_ a good idea."  
"So it's a bad idea? You don't want to?"  
"I didn't say that! I do, I just think he's rushing it a bit! Us four have a habit of doing things without thinking, and someone has to at least try keep their head on!" she protested hotly, levelling up her glare.

Sasuke seemed to think about something for a moment, but Ino couldn't for the life of her figure out what he was thinking. She could decipher Sasuke most of the time – he wasn't as skilled in keeping his face as blank as Itachi yet – but his face had changed. It was hard to pick up the twitches and habits she had once been able to pick out now.

"Ino, this is a good thing in general right? It probably is a rash and rushed one, but this isn't like everything else – its a good thing. After everything that's seems to be going on here, don't you should let this one go by?" he asked.

Ino had always been the sane one in his opinion, even if she had a temper almost as quick as Naruto's – she had never been the one to leap head first into things. Ino at least gave a moments thought first, then jumped in behind her team-mates.

It was probably that moment that had saved her team's behinds on a few occasions, but Ino had the right to do a few mad things too. Provided they weren't too crazy and wouldn't make things worse. As long as Ino's crazy met those two requirements, she could have as many as she wanted in his opinion.

Ino thought about it and conceded that had a point, in a way. It was half panic and half wariness that was holding her tongue on the matter anyway. Everything Itachi had told her was logical, a bit mad, but logicically so. Sasuke was right too – she knew Itachi wasn't making the request on impulse...

"You can be sane later – if you need a reason, do it to give Naruto one less headache, she really does need one less headache" he joked, even if his tone indicated he was being somewhat serious.

Ino frowned in it for a few more moments, before slumping forward in resignation. Then she turned towards Sasuke a slightly amused look on her face.

"You can drop the transformation Itachi – I knew it was you when I walked into the room"

The transformation blurred from Sasuke's body Itachi's, an eyebrow raised.  
"if you knew it was me why didn't you call me out?" he asked.

"Does it really matter?" she asked.

There was a moment of awkward silence – neither really knowing what to say, Itachi because his attempt a subterfuged counselling had failed miserably, and Ino because she had been caught. Ino glanced at him once, looking a little resigned.

"You really think this is a good idea?" she asked again.

Itachi gave a short firm nod of his head; Ino observed the sincerity in the nod, trying to detect any hint that he was doubting himself. Of course that was impossible, but she tried all the same. He honestly seemed to believe himself when he said it was a good idea from what she could gather.

"Fine, I must be mad, but fine. If you really think its a good idea..."

Itachi, who had been trying to think of a way to broach the topic himself, looked up sharply.

"what?" he asked, completely caught off guard by the sudden wary acceptance.  
"I said yes you idiot! Use your ears!" Ino repeated, looking a little put out at being ignored.

He stared at her for a few minuets, before silently rising from his seat beside Naruto to the floor, and crossed it to the end of the bed. He bent down as best he could – he may have been out of the wheelchair, but his lower gut was still a bit tender – gently brushed her fringe from her in front of her right eye, and kissed her.

"was that really so hard to say?" he asked with a trace of a smirk.  
"I'm the sane one remember? Of course it was!"

Ino replied with a roll of her eyes, but stood up to kiss him again all the same.

* * *

**_Updated! Watch out - peices of blue may land on your head if you go outside... _**

**_It probably looks like Sasuke is getting a bit too smart, but remember that he's been in the company of Orochimaru and Kabuto. He isn't voicing his odd sense that something is off about Naruto because he's horrifically out of the loop though. He thinks Ino and Itachi are right because of that._**

**_Inspite of this, he knows Naruto better they do so his is noticing niggling little things, but not enough to actually start questioning what's happening yet._**  
**_Just thought i'd clear that up. Hope you all liked the chapter!_**  
**_Nat._**  
**_xxx_**


	19. The NotQuite Mundane

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

* * *

**ACT II: SCENE XIX  
~ THE NOT–QUITE MUNDANE ~**

* * *

Ino stared at the form in front of her with a disapproving gaze, tapping her pen on the kitchen table as she pondered whether signing the thing was really the best idea.

If she wanted to even think about going along with Itachi's mad, irrational, illogical case of idiocy, then signing it was absolutely essential; this was only one of numerous forms she would have to sign before the application could even be submitted to the Daimyo.

To a civilian, the thought would be completely preposterous, but she was a ninja. True she was still a Genin, but she was due to take over the Yamanaka clan after her father died, and with that came the general consensus she would take a decent spot in the interrogation department, if not run it with Ibiki's successor like her father.

Itachi was already responsible for his own clan (or what was left of them), and the police department, even if it was under his cousin's command, besides being a Jonin in his own right. That was a lot of responsibility, and when ninja in their position wanted to get married, there had to be lots of guarantees it wouldn't distract them from their duties to the Daimyo, or the Hokage.

The fact that they were from two completely different clans, two very influential clans, was another headache; political gain aside, both of them would be fighting tooth and nail to get the better side of the bargain. There would be endless arguments about bloodlines, names, land, living accommodation, kids, and that wasn't even close to obtaining permission in the first place.

Really the only thing anything like a wedding about the whole farce was the kissing part – everything else was political, legal, and militarized. And full of forms.

Like the one in front her, which was the request that would be given to Tsunade, who would then inform the Daimyo, and then the arguments would begin all over again, and then she would get a headache and change her mind, and then Itachi would be sad, and Naruto would kill her...

Itachi would be sad – he wouldn't show it, but he would be sad, and grumpy.

"I must be mad..." Ino muttered to herself as she signed her name above Itachi's at the bottom of the form.

She stared at her horrible chicken scrawl next to Itachi's gossamer threadlike handwriting, and felt like crying – this was insane! She was mad! Completely mad! Why had she even considered this in the first place? Oh yes, that bothersome love buisness. Tsk. Horrible messy emotion that made sane people mad and logical people illogical.

She stared at the bottom of the form, before rolling it up into a thin scroll; all she had to do now was submit the form to Tsunade, and tell her dad. How fun.

"Ino? Is something wrong?"

Ino looked over the back of the chair at Itachi; he stood in the doorway pulling off his sandals. Somehow, the picture in front of her mollified her a little.

"Nope. Nothing at all" she grinned.

* * *

"She really said it? Thank god for that!"

Naruto let out a sigh of relief as Sasuke told her about Ino sudden change in opinion on the subject of weddings. Well, it wasn't really a change of opinion – she had just suffered from a stupid moment and said no by accident, then she had suffered from a stubborn moment.

She was seated on the wooden walkway of their grandparents' house, completely blind for the moment, but Tsunade had told her that would pass much quicker than it usually would thanks to the Kyuubi. Luckily Tsunade had been in agreement that being blind was not a sufficient disability for a ninja.

There were several totally sightless or near sighted ninja who had learned to rely on their other senses, like Naruto was learning to now; she had never listened for the emotions in Sasuke voice as much as she had searched for them in his eyes and facial expressions, but she would definitely be changing that.

It was spine-tingling. She had no sight for the moment but the more she listened, the more aware of thing she became. Maybe she could develop this further when she left to train with the frogs.

"How was your check up with Tsunade?" she asked, remembering where Sasuke had just come from.

He had been getting routine check-ups on his chakra network and physical state in general since the day she had gone in for her operation, almost a week ago now.

"Apparently I can start using chakra again, and my recovery rate is almost as fast as yours. Fuu still has some lingering effects, but I'm fully healed from the removal. I don't even want to think about how Juugo felt during that..." he replied from the right.

Going by the dull scratching and smoothing clang of metal, he was sharpening his sword again – he was very attached to it, even if Orochimaru had given it to him. Tsunade had made him hand it over to make sure there was no way Orochimaru could get control of him again for a day, and he had been very disagreeable till it had been returned.

"If I can get my chakra back under control, I'm going to apply for the Chunin exams in a few months – I already asked Kakashi to train me. I just need to find a team..."

He muttered the last part, and Naruto felt a grin on her face.

"Why? You've already got one!" she asked gleefully – she could almost feel the cogs whirring as he caught up with her implications.

"You and Ino haven't passed them yet? Why not?" he asked.

Naruto could have hit him then, blind or not.

"Why do you think you idiot? Team Seven is hardly Team Seven without its last member, is it?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

She felt his eyes on her, the silent astonishment; honestly, did he really think they would apply for the Chunin exams without him? Sure they could have applied with Sai, or Ino could have joined one of the other teams – her brother and Choji for example – but it wouldn't have felt right.

She felt irritation when he hugged her however, leaning onto her shoulder; he was doing that deliberately because she couldn't see him! That cheat! That absolute cheat! That wasn't fair! Still, it was not a moment to be wasted, so she let it go.

She leaned back against one of the pillars that supported the room, Sasuke still leaning against her, feeling tired; she hadn't expected to feel tired again. She had been eating high energy bars, soldier pills, energy drinks, anything to stave away sleep.

Now that the dreams and nightmares didn't plague her anymore... she felt exhausted. Completely with out energy. It felt so good to just fall asleep again without having to worry about taking tablets, and if she was going to kill something (or someone) in her sleep.

She wanted to enjoy it while it lasted; Ino and Tsunade had already told her it probably wouldn't last as long as either of them had hoped, but it was enough. She hoped it was enough. She shook the thoughts from her mind – she didn't want to worry about that until she had to.

Right now, she dint have the Sharingan, Ino and Itachi were finally getting some sense into their heads, and Sasuke was using her shoulder as a pillow. No matter what had led up to it, everything was good.

* * *

Naruto winced, blinking at the stabbing brightness, raising both hands to cover her recently healed eyes; even with the Kyuubi's aid, it had taken two months ago for them to fully heal.

Killer Bee and Yugito had gone on to Takigakure with Fuu (much to the girl's displeasure), and Kakashi was already helping Sasuke get his chakra and techniques back up to the level required to withstand the Chunin exams.

She would be leaving for Mt. Myoboku any day now, once her eyes had gotten used to sunlight a little better; Ino had finally gotten around to revealing what she had seen in Madara's mind (they had taken to using the name despite its inaccuracy), and Tsunade had been even more insistent that she go stay with the toads.

Juugo had finished his own recovery, and was busy training with Sakura and Sai to enter the Chunin exams with them; they would be in Iwagakure this year, and Naruto would be lying is she said she wasn't a little worried about visiting the place.

Someone was bound to recognise her, and two Iwa ninjas had attacked during her training trip with Jiraiya – it would be like a hen walking into a pen of foxes. All right, a hen that had been trained in cock-fighting, but she wasn't really looking forward to it. Especially when the foxes knew boxing too.

Ino sat beside her on the grass bank under the trees as they watched Kakashi driving Sasuke up the wall with all his chakra exercises – she had her head in one hand, and was chewing on the end of an ink-brush as she glared at a pile of forms.

Tsunade had been a combination of horrified at the paperwork implications, and just as relived as Naruto had been when Ino handed her the request form. Apparently, her father had been more excited than anyone to date – he had been positively drooling at the thought of all the political gain.

Naruto had almost rolled her eyes at the academy antics between the clans, then she remembered she came from one of them. That made eye rolling a bit hypocritical. Ino had moved in with Itachi, possibly hoping to make him change his mind, and Sasuke had moved his things from his old room and into her flat to give them some space.

It had called for a bit of rearranging of the furniture, but space was made eventually – Sasuke's bed had been squashed in next to her own by the window, though she had been forced to turn it so it was vertical instead of horizontal. It made the space for the table a little squashed, but it wasn't completely unmanageable.

For most people, that would have been seen as progress – Naruto did not see it as progress. She suddenly found herself her own old frustrations, ones Ino seemed desperate to reclaim, all over again. In the two months and fourteen days since he had returned, Sasuke hadn't so much as held her hand since after the operation.

She understood that he needed to get caught up, that he needed to adjust to the changes that had occurred in Konoha while he was gone, but nothing? Nothing at all? What the hell was wrong with him? Shikamaru would have jumped on her weeks ago, though he seemed to spending more and more time with Sakura lately (thank god).

She had gone over all the possible reasons, and had come to the conclusion that either Sasuke was having issues with the whole sibling thing (most likely, but one she preferred to ignore for fear of headaches), or she simply wasn't that attractive (less likely, but oddly preferable to her other option).

But then again, that made no sense either, since he had been on the verge of eating her brain in the Rice Country base. It hadn't been that long ago... She didn't want to rush into things like Ino had, but there was taking things slowly, and there was going slower than a sloth.

"Ino, am I really that flat?" she asked.

Ino jerked up looking alarmed at the question, having been jerked from her work on her wedding contract, then she raised an eyebrow.

"Not really..." she replied, not quite sure on the context of the question.  
"Then why does he keep ignoring me?" she muttered, glaring out across the field at Sasuke – Kakashi had him balancing leaves on his forehead and palms.

Ino glanced at the object of her glare, then a look of complete understanding crossed her face.

"you tried showing a bit of flesh?"  
"Ino, we use the same shower, and I sleep in my underwear – skin-showing is not the problem."

Naruto glared at Sasuke again; she had deliberately let herself sit up on the bed in a towel dripping wet and shivering from the draught that came down the back from the window, pretending to read one of her fathers sealing books, and he hadn't taken a blind bit of notice.

The force of her glare must have been enough for him to notice being watched, because he turned to look in their direction in surprise, all focus on the leaves vanishing (much to Kakashi's irritation). She grinned at him, and then felt like strangling him till he dropped the confusion on his face.

God, just a kiss would be nice! She knew it wasn't the sibling thing, because trying to untangle herself from him in the morning was like fighting with a statue – Sasuke had never been a clingy sleeper until they had started seeing each other. Then he began to be clingy.

It was just as bad now – if Sasuke was having doubts, he would have simply reverted to stealing half the bed covers. She knew it wasn't that, and since Ino said her boobs were not completely reminiscent of a chopping board, it couldn't be that either. What the hell was it?

Naruto glared at him again; he jerked his head back in their direction, and once again it was covered up with a grin. She was going to get to the bottom of this if it killed her. She just had to figure out a way of doing that without actually mentioning it.

* * *

Sasuke was very wary of Naruto as he returned to her apartment; he just knew she had been glaring at him all day for some reason or another, and he had no idea what it was. He was certain she had thrown a rock at the back of his neck before leaving the training ground too.

She was seated on her bed, surrounded by sealing books and scrolls, and she had covered the sheets with a sheet of plastic to keep the ink she was using on blank scrolls from staining anything; she had either run out of bushes, or had grown frustrated with fiddling with them, because her fingers were stained black.

There were a few specks on her forearms, and smudges on her cheeks and ears from pushing her fringe repeatedly back behind her ears – it seemed to fall at the sides in the same way his own did now, albeit with much more frazzle in it.

She glanced down at one of the seals she had just written, watching it carefully as it interlinked with the ones she had drawn around it – it seemed to crackle on the page as he stepped closer to get a better look, and Naruto's eyes suddenly bulged in alarm.

"Oh bugger...!"

Those were her only words before she snatched the scroll and hurled it into one of the trees beyond the open window – there was a bluish black glow as it reacted to the chakra Naruto had placed in it. Naruto peered over the edge of the window sill to receive a shriek from someone on the ground floor of the apartment building.

"Naruto, what have I told you abouit throwing your dodgy seals into my gardenias?"

Naruto seemed to seat in discomfort a little.

"I'm sorry Mrs Takaomi! Really, I am!"  
"Then stop throwing them out of the window girl! You're going to be replacing those flowers from your own pay check this time!"

Naruto pulled her head back over the window sill, looking a little put out; she finally seemed to notice he was in the room, and frowned.

"What are you doing back so early?"  
"I finished for the day – what was that?"

Naruto gave one of the scrolls beside her on the bed a frustrated look.

"I'm trying to figure out a way around the booby traps on those scroll Ino found in Suna – I have to test them first, but they keep blowing up or dissolving the paper or..."

She looked up at him again and her frown deepened, then she pulled one of the heavier books onto her knee, flicking through to a random page, muttering to herself the whole while. She also seemed to have a dictionary. He sat down on his own bed, leaning across to glance over her shoulder as he pulled off his dirty training shirt.

"What the heck is all that scribble?" he asked, staring at the writing.

Naruto turned a glare towards him, and he could help but lean away from its intensity.

"That scribble is one of the most complex sealing alphabets in existence! It's because of this sealing alphabet that we have things like the barrier teams or tetragram or five element seals! That is the Uzumaki sealing alphabet, and it's the only thing that even comes close to that stupid dead language I decoded from those damn Uchiha scrolls!" she yelled at him.

Sasuke completely missed the fist heading his way, and as it crashed into his shoulder, he was sent crashing from his bed and onto the floor. Before he could flee the apartment, she and dragged him up from the floor by the front of his shirt and started yelling rather loudly.

"I've never seen that language before, and I know all of them Sasuke! Every single one! That's something my Sharingan was actually good for, and I do not know that alphabet! I'm having to decode it from the beginning purely by trial and error! The fact that the Uzumaki alphabet is based off of some of it has actually let me make some progress, and you, you sealing greenhorn, call it_ scribble?_!"

Sasuke felt certain he had missed something now; it wasn't his fault that he could read a seal to save his life, but Naruto was still yelling when she would have normally explained. He briefly wondered if the month had reached a certain point, but that had been two weeks ago – he remembered spending most of the week training with Kiba to get away from her testy mood.

That must mean that she was venting at him for something – he was used to that, but this time it seemed personal instead of general. He wondered if he could pick up some tips on mind reading from Ino, because he had no clue what he was supposed to have done to earn the yelling.

He wondered if this had anything to do with what had happened during his absence – Ino and Itachi had both explained it to him, but something still seemed to rub him wrong about the whole thing for some reason. Naruto acted a little odd sometimes too – he could swear he had seen guilt on her face a few times when she caught his eyes...

Then again, it was probably something else given the sheer blatancy of her displeasure. What that could possibly be though, utterly escaped him.

She dropped him back down onto the floor and stalked off into the room where all the weapons and spare scrolls and training books were kept (it also contained their clothes since there wasn't room anywhere else for them anymore), muttering to herself in one of those languages she had mentioned.

The logical thing to do would be to ask, and he did try when she returned with yet more scrolls and another set of large books, but the glare she sent him before he could even get the words out of his mouth was enough to hold his tongue. What the hell was wrong with her?

He tried to think back over the past two, almost three months, to see if there had been any sort of grievous error made on his part that he had failed to notice at the time; he couldn't really think of anything. They argued on occasion, but that wasn't new.

He had been doing everything the way he should have – they talked, they trained, heck, they lived together! True, it was to give Ino and Itachi some space to work out their mess, but it still counted, and his sleep hadn't been so good in years...

what on earth was he doing wrong? About the only thing he could come up with was being a little more enthusiastic with his training in the past few weeks – the exams would be starting next month after all, and while he was finally making some progress towards Naruto and Ino's level, he wanted to improve a bit more before they headed for Iwagakure.

Naruto was pouring over a thick old volume, frequently venturing towards the dictionary with utter confusion on her face; he wondered if he should study sealing a bit more. Even Ino used seals now, and he really should know at least the basics in case Orochimaru decided to come after him again.

"Did you have something to say, or are you just planning to sit around doing nothing?" Naruto asked, irritably flicking her brush over a roll of parchment – the seal gave a small poof as she pushed a little chakra into it, and her frown dimmed slightly.

"I would if I knew what it was – why are you so mad at me today?" he asked, deciding to risk it and enter the danger zone.

"You mean you noticed? Astonishing..." she replied, not looking up from the seal – she was now drawing minuscule seals around the larger one with a brush as thin and as small as a toothpick.

"How the hell was I supposed to miss it when you threw a rock at my neck? What did I do?"

Naruto looked up, and examined his face for a few moments, before beginning to form a growl of frustration behind gritted teeth, and then throwing her brush at him, a blotch of ink appearing on his forehead from the impact.

"God, it's like talking to Itachi again! Why are you two so dense? I've done everything short of screaming it, but you still don't get it! Your an idiot Sasuke! A freaking idiot!" she yelled.

She sat up from the bed, and pulled her black t-shirt over the leathery-mesh shirt thing she had taken to wearing instead of bandages recently, and then the orange skirt over the mesh leggings. He had though it odd that she walk around the apartment like that at first, but considering the mess seal experimenting made, it probably wasn't a bad idea.

Before he could protest, she had slammed the door, leaving him standing baffled in the middle of the room; in what way had she been telling him anything?

She talked to him as she normally would, forced him into hugs on occasion, swore at almost everything that irritated her, and had tried to pound the basics of food preparation into his head. She had somewhat succeeded actually – he no longer burned things too badly, though he still had a problem with under-cooking some things though.

There was nothing to notice was there?

* * *

Ino stared at the irritated blonde who had turned up on the kitchen windowsill as she hunted for scraps in the fridge

She noted that if she was going to get married, then this inability to find food in the house would have to stop - though given her own cooking skills were moderately abysmal, she supposed there would have to be a housekeeper of some sort hired, like the woman who helped her father at the house.

"Where's Itachi?" Naruto demanded, jumping down from the window sill and shaking the rain from her hair.  
"Talking with my dad, why?" she asked, taking a step back from the wet droplets.

Naruto snarled something, then proceeded to swear a lot between her explanation of Sasuke's apparent idiocy; Ino wondered if this frustration was how Naruto had felt when she had been serving as a mediator between herself and Itachi. If it was, she applauded Naruto for putting up with it for so long, twice over no less.

"Why can't you just tell him?" Ino asked, before realised the stupidity of the words herself.  
"I can't tell him Ino! That'll be one for his side if I tell him! I'm in the lead and I have to keep it up! I'm not loosing to him!" she explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Ino wanted to bash her head against something; how had Naruto put up with this? From what Ino could gather, the whole problem lay in the sibling rivalry area. _That_ had existed long before the sibling thing had shown up, and arguing over it was rather useless

"Can't you just give him a hint?"  
"That's what I'm _here_ for! You gave Itachi enough of them - tell me how to do it! I'm useless at this subtle thing!"

Ino frowned – she hadn't really been subtle either, and when she had tried it hadn't worked. The only reason it had all worked out in the end was because she got frustrated, and started yelling, and then Itachi got frustrated because he thought she had been overworking. Which, technically, she had been, but that wasn't the point.

That would not be the answer Naruto wanted to her though, nor one that would work as well as it had for herself.

"So make him ask again – if he asks again, you'll win because he's that stumped that there was no other choice but to tell him right?" she suggested.

Naruto pondered it for a few moments, and seemed to grunt in approval at the idea.  
"How's the wedding planning going? Did the Daimyo reply yet?" she asked changing the subject.

Ino immediately went into the long explanation of frustrating delays and dates that had been argued back and forth for two weeks straight. About all that had been decided was who the witnesses would be – Itachi would be represented by Sasuke and Shisui, and Ino would be represented by Shikamaru and Inoro.

Itachi had originally wanted Naruto to be a witness instead of Shisui, and so had Ino, but unless they could find out how to remove the memory technique affecting the village, it was impossible. The witnesses were required to have a familial relationship with the two getting married (except for parents).

Ino had been less than pleased about that but there was nothing she could do about it – Tsunade had been subject to the same technique, and though her father remembered some things, he couldn't remove it. Fugaku had either taken it to his grave as he intended, or he had passed it on.

If he had, the most likely person at the moment was Deidara, but there hadn't been hide nor hair of him seen in months. Killer Dee had sent word that the mountain base in lightning country was in pieces, and had been abandoned, but that was all they knew.

Other than that, things had made some progress; it had been decided that Ino would be allowed to keep her name, as well as her position as clan heir immediate, but unless one of her kids didn't have the Sharingan (which would be unlikley), they would not be in the position themselves, and Inoro's kids would get the position instead.

Ino would keep her seat in the clan meetings too, but she would be able to fill in for Itachi if he was otherwise engaged, and vice versa. She was also getting some prime mental disturbance illusions from the Uchiha clan to be given a new home in the Yamanaka vaults (which were almost as impregnable as the Hyuuga compound).

From what she had gathered, they were almost the exact same thing as a Tsukiyomi, but she couldn't change the scene once she was inside it, and it didn't have the same draining effect on the user or the victim. It was also much less demanding of chakra, but it was horrifically fiddly. Hence the reason why most Uchihas didn't use it.

In return, Itachi was going to be added to the telepathy contract; it was a way of adding him to the clan mentality despite not having been born into it. He wouldn't be as regularly exposed to it as she was though – he would just be able to communicate with herself and any future offspring that had the telepathy.

It was all about exchange and the two clans getting benefit before they would even start getting the invitations written and permission from the Daimyo (which was what Itachi was discussing with her father right now). She in the meantime, was stuck signing more forms that finalised it all.

She was the one who had won the jan-ken game over who would go with Tsunade to visit the Daimyo though, so she supposed that was fair.

Ino stopped explaining all of this to Naruto, and frowned.  
"I thought you wanted to get his hormones woken up again – what are you still doing here?"  
"I can't go back – he has to come looking for me, or I'll loose."

Ino wished she hadn't asked.

* * *

When Sasuke finally found his irate sister, he was seriously beginning to loose his mind. He tried and tried, but he couldn't think of anything he had done wrong, and the more he though he was being wrongly punished, the more he knew there was something he was missing, overlooking.

As they walked through the streets of Konoha, he noted not for the first time that about half of the population still held their glares in full force. A greater proportion seemed to have either forgotten their prejudices, or were seemingly in two minds.

He wondered how many of them would return to being disgusted if they found out he was was her brother? They approached Ichiraku's and he immediately headed towards it, Naruto following closely behind.

"Look, I really don't know why you're so mad, so just tell me all right? I give up" he muttered after telling Ayame his order – he ignored the knowing look she gave him.

Naruto stared at him speculatively for a few moments, trying to find some sort of loophole – he knew why she hadn't bothered to explain it to him. He had fought tooth an nail to avoid right out surrender, but it just wasn't happening; for some reason, a certain moment in a graveyard flicked across his mind.

Naruto gave Ayame her own order before turning to give him her serious face  
"Are we still dating or not?" she asked bluntly.

That... was not what he had been expecting, nor was it very understandable. Where was she getting an idea that they weren't from? He was pretty certain he'd made no indications to suggest they weren't, and Naruto hadn't either, so where was it coming from?

"Not unless the rules changed without my knowing or something" he replied carefully.

Not that that was really of any concern; they had never set much store by the typical dating guidelines. Naruto used Icha Icha for reference when they were younger for cripes sake. What twelve year old used smut for a romance guide?

"Then bloody act like it!" Naruto snapped, before slurping up her noodles with a little more fervour than usual.

Sasuke was still baffled; what was she talking about? He was acting like it wasn't he? It wasn't like he had said _'Hey I changed my mind – the sibling thing creeps me out now'_ at some point. He couldn't remember doing anything to encourage any notion of such thought at all – where was this coming from?

"I'm not a piece of dead wood, or a tree or something else useless or primarily for decoration!"

Sasuke knew this perfectly well; for one thing trees couldn't yell half as well as she could, and for another, trees were not actually useless. Neither was Naruto – she had decoded the message that had led them to Juugo hadn't she? She had fought of _'Madara'_ when Itachi couldn't too – that was far from being useless.

"I still don't-"

He was cut off by the sharp tug on his shirt, and the unsurprisingly harsh press of her lips on his own. She released him and turned back to her ramen, muttering low unintelligible things to herself as she devoured the noodles.

Sasuke tried to process what had just happened before realisation dawned on him; maybe he had been acting a little distant after all...

It wasn't his fault though! He had been busy trying to get his skills back up to the level they had been at before Orochimaru had dragged him off to sound, and there had been the whole thing with Naruto's eyes, and Itachi always came to him when Ino had a spaz about files and kicked him out for a few hours...

He honestly hadn't meant to ignore her – he didn't really think it would have mattered all that much, thing would get back to that sort of thing once all the chaos was out of the way... He had really thought that? God he was so stupid.

Why had he even thought that? He had been ready to eat her face off when she turned up in Rice Country hadn't he? There had been plenty of chaos then – lots and lots of chaos – but it hadn't put him off (not even Sai had really managed that). What had happened?

He had thought things had finally settled down – he shouldn't have made such a stupid mistake! Was it because thing had settled down? Had the lack of chaos lulled him into... Maybe getting accustomed to things was taking longer than he had expected. Those kind of thought weren't bothering as much as they had once before with all the training...

He leaned over to peck her cheek in apology (that was as far as he would go in public – he despised pda's), only to be met by a punch to the nose.

"You'll have to try harder than that – I get that it's still over your head a bit here, but You've ignored me for two months straight! You don't get off that easily!" she snapped.

Sasuke rubbed his cradled his nose, sincerely believing that she had used a little of her chakra in that hit. He still didn't know how she and Ino did that – they had double teamed him several times, and they both kept using each others techniques.

Kakashi and Itachi were both as flummoxed as he was, both claiming that they had displayed the abilities directly after Naruto had returned from her training trip with Jiraiya. There had been a few hours, but that wasn't enough for them to teach their techniques to the other.

They didn't seem to train them together at all either, but Naruto was still demolishing rocks with her fists, and Ino was using the Rasengan. Whenever he asked, they just grinned at him, and told him it was a surprise for when her got back to the level that would be needed for the Chunin exams.

He sincerely hoped it would be soon.

* * *

Sasuke rolled out the way as Ino let rip a snarling blade of wind towards the spot he had just been standing in, completely ruining the stinging streams of lightning he had been rippling across the ground towards... where the hell was Naruto?

The sound of air whistling above him caught his hears and he dodged again as Naruto landed on the earth, crushing it into giant hard flakes of dirt as she landed – she had used Ino's strength through her feet? She'd never done that before, but then again neither had Ino used the wind element – she was an earth and water user!

How in the love of fire did they keep doing this? It wasn't an illusion, nor were they disguised clones! He could feel the gazes of Kakashi and Itachi as they scrutinised the fight, trying to see for themselves what was going on.

He multiplied himself into several clones, noting the disappearance of his team mates, standing in a circle, staring in every direction. The silence from the clones told him there was nothing to be seen from the other angles. There was a slight crunch of dirt beneath him, and he quickly substituted himself with the nearest clone as Ino's hand shot up from the dirt.

He thought he had managed to avoid her when the blonde clone disappeared in a poof of smoke, and he almost let out a howl of frustration. He couldn't see them anywhere close by, and he couldn't see the difference between real and clone when they did show up!

A whirling in the air behind him alerted him to that damn shuriken of Naruto's, and he immediately ducked to avoid the object – the swamp that emerged beneath his feet caught him completely off guard, and before he could move out of the way, his legs were stuck.

This time he did swear openly – when had they started sharing their elements in that thing? How ere they doing it in the first place? It made no sense! Naruto did not have a water element! She had fire and wind, and Kakashi was certain that when she came to training her third element she would take her father's lightning element too, but she had no inclinations towards the most basic of water techniques!

He stopped swearing and took a deep breath – all this concentrating on the how was useless. If he wanted to get out of this, he would just have to beat the what. It was time to try out a few of the techniques he had stolen from Orochimaru before he had be imprisoned properly.

After a quick set of hand-seals, he felt his chakra forming a shell from his skin, his eyes, his hair – with some revulsion, he pulled himself out of the stretchy mouth of the clone he had created, and used it to kick off and land on the edge of the swamp. It had taken up almost half of his chakra, but he was out of the swamp.

He was immediately set upon by his two team-mates, and sent a clone to hold off Ino while he kept Naruto off – his best bet with her was close range – she wasn't well suited with long range fighting, and she wouldn't be able to block his sword particularly well, but he would be open to Rasengan and power punches.

That left mid range; after another set of hand seals, he let loose a storm of medium sized fireballs, sending them after one another as if spitting the pit of a cherry. He immediately reacted to the attack of Ino's short sword, quickly blocking the attack wit his sword and fissuring some electricity through it.

Apparently Ino's stubby sword was made of the same metal of Naruto's shuriken because the lightning that fissured into it was immediately dissolved by the smother of Naruto's wind element. He managed to push her back, and jumped to avoid the wall of mud that she sent towards him.

He landed on top of it as it crashed down to the earth, and was confronted by a series of sharp forceful blows from Naruto – her kicks and punches were laced with extra chakra, and a hit from one of them reveals that she was not only using Ino's strong arm tactics, but she was using her wind chakra for it.

It seeped into his skin like a a violet cold breeze – not enough to tear his skin but certainly enough to keep him from building up any lightning chakra – he had tried using fire close up with her, and she met it with a fire just as strong as his.

Even though he could see the blows coming, he was barley making it in time to block the savage blows she was sending towards him. Apparently she still knew how to fight without the Sharingan despite having it for the past three years – Itachi must have given her pointers.

He finally got a blow in, and Naruto was sent crashing into the loose dirt – he felt a sense of victory wash over him until Ino emerged from the poof of smoke that enveloped her – the swirling sound of chakra above him was an instant alarm and he jumped backwards himself in time for the real Naruto to slam a Rasengan into the loose earth.

He tried quickly tried another fireball, and Naruto met it with one of her own, infusing it with boosting wind chakra to snarl over his own and crash into him.

He fell back onto the dirt completely exhausted from using so many chakra demanding techniques in such rapid succession; Kakashi hadn't made him draw that much chakra out, and Itachi always beat him before he could get anywhere close to exhausting his reserves.

Naruto peered over him and grinned as she helped him to his feet, leading him towards the edge of the training ground where Ino was already rummaging around in her medical pack.

"I think you'll be fine in the exams Sasuke – you lasted much longer than I expected against _that"_ Kakashi congratulated as Ino, almost forced the chakra replenishments down his throat.

Kakashi's emphasis on the word _'that'_ immediately revealed his distaste for the infuriating method Naruto and Ino now used in their team spars. He couldn't actually stop them using it, even if he did manage to beat them when they did, and it absolutely infuriated him.

"About bloody time! They start in a few weeks, and it's going to take forever to get across the wastelands of Earth Country!" Naruto complained.

"How the hell do you two keep doing that?" he asked.

He had been told that they would reveal the secret of it when he was declared fit enough for the exams, and Kakashi had just done that. He was getting an answer after all the hell they had put him through for the past three months.

Naruto and Ino both had a smug grin on their faces, and Ino began the explanation as she healed a small cut on one of his arms.

"It's not really all that complicated; I was looking through one of my clan scrolls when Naruto was training with jiraiya, and I found a technique that reversed the polarity of motor neurons in the brain by manipulating a persons chakra – I used on that sound creep. At the same time, I was studying a technique for donating large amounts of chakra quickly for people with severe chakra exhaustion..."

Sasuke felt an infuriating realisation dawning, and judging by the horrified faces of Itachi and Kakashi, they were also catching up.

"...I wondered if you could combine them, use other people's chakra and their own elements. I practised with my dad, and I couldn't control his elements even if I understood them – my body just rejected the foreign elements that I had no affinity for, so I changed it. I combined it with the temporary telepathy technique, and kept control of my chakra in his body instead."

Kakashi was making several strangled noises now.

"Once I got down the basics of it, I sent an explanation to Naruto when Tsunade sent a message to Jiraiya for her to practice too – I think Killer Bee and Fuu helped you with that right?"

Naruto nodded, a horribly smug grin on her face at the sight of Kakashi's twitching eye, and the look of absolute terror that had suddenly dawned on Itachi's face.

"Anyway, Naruto practised with them, and once she got back we tried it out a couple of times before the fight with Kakashi, and it was like we'd been practising together all the time. I controlled my chakra in her, letting it loose when needed, and Naruto controlled the Rasengan for me"

"Wait up, I didn't see you transplanting any chakra to each other during that fight, and you've never stood anywhere near each other when you've been fighting Sasuke" Kakashi interrupted.

"With you we used the smoke bomb to fill up what we had left over from the first couple of tries so it didn't take long, and for Sasuke, we started getting into the habit of exchanging in the morning on the way to rescue Gaara, so we had it before we even started training." Naruto grinned at him.

Kakashi began muttering several things to himself again, seeming a little gloomy for some reason; Sasuke fully sympathised. It was one of the most evil psychological games he had seen being used. All that frustration over who was who and the how they could use this or that, and they hadn't even been controlling them in the first place.

No wonder they always had those infuriating smirks on their faces when he was fighting them. He couldn't believe Ino had come up with this – Naruto, yes, but Ino? He would never have expected it from Ino. Ino didn't have such a blatant mischievous streak as Naruto did, though she did enjoy mind games.

The more he thought about it though, the more he realised that only Ino could have come up with it – she was as mischievous as Naruto and much more subtle, had access to countless mind techniques, and spent her spare time in the interrogation department nowadays.

Why the hell did his brother want to marry her? He was absolutely nuts!

"...the best thing is the telepathy part of it leaves no link of chakra, so the Sharingan can't see it, and our own chakra completely blotted out the transplanted parts, so it couldn't see that either! It doesn't really interfere with our own chakra or what were thinking individually, so we could use our own attacks as well, " Naruto added jovially.

"After enough time using it, we both picked up the Rasengan and super strength because even if we weren't the ones controlling the techniques, we could still feel them when they were used! The telepathy part means we can communicate with each other too, so our team work goes through the roof!" Ino finished, looking very much like she wanted to jump up and down on the spot.

Kakashi was staring at him now, seeming to contemplate something.  
"Could you apply this the other way around? Steal chakra from someone?" he asked Ino, sounding a little bit eager about something.

Ino frowned in thought for a few moments.

"I don't think so – I'm still working on controlling the chakra individually, but I doubt it. I don't think there a limit on how many people it would work with, but you'd have to be able to cope with all the people linked into it – Naruto hardly bothers me, but I'm used to that from my own clan..."

she turned to Naruto with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't think it would work any more than three or four, five at a stretch – the head thing would be too distracting otherwise. Sometimes Ino can't keep track of her thoughts and they drift into my head when I'm trying to focus." she replied.

"And I assume, you're going to involve Sasuke in this from now on?" he asked.

Two evil grins answered that question for him; Kakashi looked almost overwhelmingly proud, and utterly terrified as the notion of all three of his trolls using the technique on him entered his mind. Itachi was staring at Ino with new levels of admiration and fear on his face.

"If it hadn't been for Naruto's Sharingan, it wouldn't be nearly so undetectable though – she told me how to keep my chakra over the transplanted stuff to keep it hidden thanks to her practice with Killer Bee and Fuu. She suggested keeping the telepathy open for communication too despite the drawbacks too - if it hadn't been for that, it would have been easy to see or even sense" Ino added nonchalantly, finishing her medical treatment.

Sasuke didn't know whether to be afraid of his team-mates or not, but there was one thing he was certain of; the Chunin exams were going to be a walk in the park one he got the hang of this technique too. Judging by the smug, proud expression on their teacher's face, Kakashi was thing the exact same thing.

* * *

_**This is mostly a filler chapter before the chunin exams; it's a brief moment of peace for them. I felt they sort of deserved it but things will start hotting back up again.  
Stay Tuned ^^**_

_**Hope you liked the chapter.  
Nat  
xxx **_


	20. Pledges

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

* * *

**ACT II: SCENE XX  
~ PLEDGES ~**

* * *

"I can't believe Itachi's getting married tomorrow" Sasuke muttered, his eyes intently watching some rashers of bacon that were frying under the grill of Naruto's oven.

Since he had moved in, Naruto had been drilling the ability to cook into him – he had to wonder how Jiraiya had drilled it into her in the first place though (she had been a worse cook than he was). He was actually getting the hang of it too.

"Believable or not, the quicker it's done the less time I'll have to spend worrying over them – once it's all finalised they won't be stupid any more" Naruto muttered absently.

She was pouring over scrolls and books again, glaring at the dusty old findings from Sunagakure with a glare that would have made his father overwhelmingly proud. She kept muttering to herself, tugging on her hair in frustration, tapping the end of her ink-brush on her forehead in an attempt to maintain concentration (occasionally the wrong end, leaving a few black spots of in on her forehead).

He had asked several times what she was trying to do, and she had managed to explain about the first quarter of it before descending into seal master-sounding terminology. Sh had complaints about this sealing style, or that coding system, and the other over-layering of those particularly problematic seals, and their inner workings therein.

He couldn't keep up with that, but from what he gathered the scrolls were doubly coded much like his own message, but in an old script used by the Uchihas, her current headache. It was a script that pre-dated even that of the famed sealing clan her adoptive mother had descended from.

She had already decoded the first encryption in the Uchiha script – where she had learned it was beyond him, it was a dead language now - and once those seals had rearranged themselves, the second, even more archaic script had revealed itself.

According to Naruto, it contained information on the bloodline itself that dated back from the time of the clan wars – that put it at easily close to three or four hundred years old. The use of chakra had kept it intact, but just bashing at the seals was out of the question.

She was copying every seal onto blank paper, testing each one, trying to figure out how they were linked before even touching the scroll itself – half her problem came from the fact she didn't even know what language it was she was reading. She had decoded abut a tenth of the whole thing, but it wasn't enough to make it legible or understandable as yet.

She constantly referred to thick dictionaries with detailed descriptions of the Uzumaki alphabet, comparing similar symbols hoping for a break in the encryption, along with several other equally thick volumes and long scrolls. One of them was even a Hyuuga scroll! He'd have killed to know how she learned their sealing alphabet – Hyuggas were notoriously unwilling to share that sort of thing.

"Argh! I hope you crumble to dust and burn in the seventh pit of hell!" she yelled, jerking his attention from the bacon as she threw one of her dictionaries at the wall and flopped back on the bed – throwing the old scrolls was not an option no matter how much the notion appealed, hence she vented on her poor dictionaries.

Instead she simply glared at it as she rolled it up again and replaced on the self in the training and equipment room, before returning with an amble that betrayed mental exhaustion, flopping onto the sheets after clearing away the rest of her sealing things.

He was so distracted with watching her that he almost burned the bacon – something that would have resulted in more yelling, and he'd had enough of that last week. Of course, Naruto didn't have any bread rolls, or any bread for that matter, to put the bacon in, so he dumped the whole lot on a plate with some tomato sauce grabbed two forks and sat down beside her.

She immediately perked up at the smell of food, even if it wasn't ramen, and immediately snatched one of the forks; he watched in mild amusement as he ate himself, wondering not for the first time if the Kyuubi had influenced her eating habits. Her manners had improved, but not drastically.

"When are you going to Mt. Myoboku?" he asked.

"I'm going when you and Ino set off for Iwagakure – Fukusaku is going to do a reverse summoning, so I'm going to meet you about two leagues from the village. It takes at least two weeks to get past the wastelands in earth country, so I should make some progress..." she replied, not bothering to finish chewing.

He frowned a little at that, but continued to spear his own fork with slices of bacon all the same; thinking about the toads reminded him that he needed to sign a summoning contract of his own.

There was the usual clan contract with the cats, but Itachi said there was a Hawk one that sounded appealing – Hawks used wind, and wind always made flames brighter.

Naruto rubbed the corner of one eye, swearing and muttering about dust, and alarm bells rang inside his head, but the hand dropped back to the fork to spear the last slice of bacon before he could call her on it – she glared at him when he stole it with his own fork.

"That was mine!"

"You were too slow" he replied.

He smirked at the glare on her face, and then he did something he couldn't remember doing since he was about seven years old – he stuck his tongue out at her. Incredulity rolled over her face, and the opportunity was too good to pass up.

He leaned forward, slowly, watching her trying to shake of the shock with rapid blinking; when he was certain she had shaken of the surprise just enough to be alert, he pressed his lips against her own. He almost swore when her reaction had no hint of shock in it.

He had been aiming for something fairly bland, nothing too exciting, but she wormed her fingers into his hair, darted her tongue over his lips, and the plate fell to the floor with a shatter as she moved in his direction, almost on top of him – damn it, she had won again...

He decided to ponder the fairness of it all later; this kissing business usually required all of his concentration for some reason. A very minute part of his mind objected to the shiver that it seemed to send through him, informing him it was wrong, but then Naruto let loose a trace of cool, untameable chakra as her tongue grazed his own.

That was it; he pressed his lips against hers with a little more force, enjoying the feeling of her arms draping around his neck and the pounding in his ears as one arm tightly pulled her closer. Blood rushed in his veins as he plundered her mouth with harsh kisses, the light chew on his own gradually draining rational thought from his head...

Her hands grazed his neck, his cheeks, before slowly creeping underneath his shirt – her skin seemed to burn his own, the tips of fingers leaving hot trails of cool untameable chakra behind to seep into is skin, stirring the heat and crackle of his own, and making the pounding in his ears all the faster.

Dear god, what on earth was she doing to him? Why had he been wasting time? The sensation churning through him, the smug feeling of ignoring that tiny voice, the press of her body against his own... One hand went to worm beneath the black shirt as he pushed her back – he was going to have some control here damn it.

One set of fingers wormed themselves under the bandages that covered one thigh, poking out from underneath her orange skirt, and he smirked as the tiny trickle of crackling chakra he fissured through her drew a hoarse gasp from her lips.

Her hands continued to leave those trails of wild, cooling, untameable chakra on his skin, moving lower and lower down his back as both his hands crept up over the skin of her stomach, his lips leaving hers and trailing her jaw, leaving the lightest nips as they moved onto her neck.

Her hands reached the small of his back, and the surge of chakra seemed to ignite his blood, and it seethed in his veins like lava, jerking certain half-woken parts of his body to full attention; he let out an involuntary shudder before giving her a glare academy fangirls had called 'smouldering'.

His fingers grazed her sides in the same manner, sending tiny sparks of electric chakra through her as his lips moved back to hers; as they parted for a moment of air, a smug grin enveloped her face, and she muttered one hoarse word before poofing out of existence in a cloud of thick grey smoke.

"I win"

He felt flat onto the duvet feeling like strangling something – a clone? A freaking clone? Was this more twisted payback? He had learned his lesson already with the yelling! This was just cruel! Now he'd have to take a cold shower – he hated cold showers!

There was a yelp and a clatter from the training room, and he headed for the door looking like hell had made a home in his eyes as he threw it open; Naruto had fallen onto her behind, and was muttering curses to herself about _'backfire'_ as she tried to pull herself back to her feet by grasping the edge of the table.

His glare turned to a smirk; she had forgotten that she was going to get the clones experiences. He didn't know how she had reclaimed the chakra or the physical experiences of the clone, but the red marks appearing on her neck were testament to it – he remembered that she had improved her clones before the Chunin exams three years ago though, and there was no doubt she would have worked on them since he had been gone.

In any case, all the memories had flooded in at once, along with his lightning chakra – apparently she hadn't been prepared for the sudden influx. She caught him staring smugly and frowned.

"All right! I'm sorry, but it was too fun to pass up! It was a draw! A draw!"

After some more smugness, he forgave her, and gave her a hand up before heading for the unpleasant shower.

* * *

"Where is it?" Ino demanded of anyone that could answer her, pulling cushions from the sofa in her hasty search.

The Daimyo was on his way, the ceremony was set for tomorrow afternoon, invitations had been sent, forms had been signed, ceremonial clothing bought, priest arranged for the minute amount of religion in the ceremony itself, and now someone had moved the permit for the ceremony itself from her carefully organised folder!

Without the permit, there would be no ceremony, the Daimyo would be pissed, the clans would be pissed, the guests would be pissed, Tsunade would be absolutely hell on earth for months, but Naruto would be even worse if she didn't find that permit!

Itachi watched her run around the house like a headless chicken, before calmly leafing through a pile of contracts on the coffee table, and pulled out a very battered looking piece of parchment from the middle of the pile. Ino had been very matter-of-fact about the whole thing up till about an hour ago.

She seemed to have finally realised what all the forms and arguments and organizing for the past two months had been for, and had completely lost her head.

He dangled the form in front of her nose as she dashed back into the room, muttering to herself about whether or not Sasuke would fit into the formal clothing for such events Itachi had loaned him (his old ones were far too small now), and if Naruto knew that she was going to be representing her father's family.

Ino had trawled through hours of paper work and legal documents, trying to find some way Naruto could be involved in the official ceremony, and had finally found it; once a family had a certain number of regular generations in military occupation, they were given a seat in the clan meetings.

Since this was an inter-clan marriage, the other clans would be required to _'give their support'_ in the ceremony itself. Naruto's great-grandfather on her father's side had been a ninja, leading down to her father; with his birth the family had earned the seat, and since the current owner of the seat (Deidara) had been declared a renegade, it automatically fell back to her grandparents or herself.

It would mean unveiling the identity of her father publicly, but Fugaku had made certain that everyone in the village would remain oblivious to her mother's identity unless told directly, or actually gave some serious question to the planted image of Kushina.

It had been very last minuet, and had taken some serious fast talking to convince Naruto and Tsunade, but she had won in the end; Naruto's name had been officially changed to Namikaze, as it should have been all along. Sasuke might say that it should be their mother's name, but their mother had married out of the clan, and as far as anyone else was concerned she had never had the Sharingan in the first place.

Naruto's only major complaint had been the re-stitching of the clan symbol on the back of her clothes; she had to take of the red swirl and replace it with the pale blue circle stitched with the kanji for wind in black, and her sewing skills were, to put it delicately, unrefined.

Ino stared at the paper dangling in front of her nose for almost a full minuet before she snatched it from his hand and replaced it in the folder containing all the other official documents to be handed in to Tsunade the next morning.

"Where the hell did you hide it?" she demanded, turning a glare on him.

"It was in the pile on the coffee table" he replied, oblivious to the glare as he dug around inside a cabinet for a bottle of sake.

Ever since Shisui had dragged him to the bar, he had found that having some handy was very useful – it made people more open to telling the truth if needed, and it usually calmed people down (except in the case of that miniature Gai clone).

He handed the bottle to Ino; she stared at him suspiciously before taking a wary sip. Then another. Then another longer one, before simply draining as much of the liquid as she could in one drink.

"Did you want some of this?" she asked, holding it up.

"No" he replied, picking up his book and sitting down again.

Ino flopped down next to him, wriggled under one arm, and picked up the bottle again.  
"Good" she replied, before taking another long gulp.

* * *

Naruto was woken on the day of Ino's wedding rather rudely.

She was quite happy under her duvet, snoring on top of Sasuke's chest (said boy snoring just as loudly) when Ino almost kicked down her door, burst into the apartment yelling about accidentally staying the night at the main house instead of in the Yamanaka compound, and how there was going to be a curse on her now because she had woken up with Itachi.

Naruto had told her the _'don't see the guy beforehand'_ thing civilians were so fond of making a fuss over was completely useless to them because they were ninja, and trouble was going to follow them wherever they went. Especially considering how much bad luck had been falling on the Uchiha family the past few years.

Or was it decade? In any case, she highly doubted that a little bit of _'bad luck'_ at this point in the game was going to make much difference.

Ino had retorted that it was for precisely that reason it was better not to take chances, but when Ino rudely woke her up by literally kicking Sasuke out of the pushed-together singles, and out of the apartment, Naruto began to think that Ino was loosing her head a little bit.

Maybe she shouldn't have spent the night with Itachi after all.

After throwing Ino into the shower and forcing some food down her throat, Ino persisted in going over the details of the ceremony for her – she seemed to think she was going to forget what she was supposed to do for some reason.

There would be an introduction from Tsunade to the Daimyo, who would then ask for support from the chosen four witnesses (Obito, Sasuke, Inoro, and Shikamaru), and then from the clan representatives present.

The Senjus, Uchihas, and Yamanakas were already pulled from the running because the Uchiha clan head was the one getting married, and the other was Ino's dad – even if they had not been in those positions, they wouldn't be called on because they would be _'biased'_. Since Tsunade was the only Senju left, and she was Hokage, that was also a no-no.

The evidence would go alphabetically from the remaining clans; Aburame, Akimichi, Haruno, Hyuuga, Inuzuka, Namikaze, Nara, and finally Sarutobi. The presence of Sakura's father had been one of those sources of heavy debate – theirs was not a ninja clan, but a distinctly civilian one.

Sakura was the first ninja in her family, and even if it was a powerful one in the civilian arena, it held no sway in military matters. It was somewhat depressing to think of Ino's wedding as a _'military matter'_, but it was one of the things that you signed up for after taking the loyalty oath on graduation from the Academy.

In any case, there had to be eight representatives, and there were no other families that had produced enough ninjas to be considered clans. Ino had dug out an old piece of paper that declared _'equal substitution'_ if it was required from the civilian sector - since Sakura's father was head of their council and representative to the Hokage for civilians, he was the logical choice.

After that, there would be a new loyalty oath taken out to the Daimyo and the Hokage, before the Priest would finish up with the only religious part of the ceremony. It was really a very drab ceremony – nothing like the civilian ones. The only thing reminiscent of them in it was in the religious part – the vows and kiss was about it.

Most ninjas didn't have this problem, and certainly did not have to get permission from the Daimyo, but for clans it was all politics, power, and militarism.

Once Ino was sure Naruto knew what she was supposed to do, she realised she had forgotten her official clothing, and began to panic again; Naruto had to force a hairbrush into her hand and lock the door behind her before she could go pick the stuff up from the main house.

Sasuke didn't seem to be having nearly the same problem with Itachi (whom he had taken refuge with, and where Naruto wished she was), but he did ask her to lock the drinks cupboard up with a blood-seal engineered towards her Namikaze side just for the day, so maybe not.

Ino was almost tearing her hair out with the brush when she came back, not something that made Naruto any more excitable about the whole thing; all this frippery about her hair and if that was a spot and if her nails were broken or if the face mask smelled out of date was not something she was very good at.

She always had to look twice in the shops when she was looking for hair-ties and such other things, and she didn't even know which shops _sold_ face mask. Needless to say that by the end of all Ino's headless chicken preparation, Naruto was almost too frazzled to bother with her own.

Clothing was a non issue – all attending were required to wear the black clothing usually worn for funerals that was given to all ninjas, the only exception being the ones worn by Ino and Itachi. Tey were white, not black. There was a red stitch of the Konoha leaf on the backs, and the black belt that went with the garments was replaced by a red one.

Seeing Tsunade in her formal robes and big hat was going to be a sight to see though.

At one point, Ino had read the weather forecast when the paper boy showed up, and there was a thunderstorm scheduled for that afternoon, that night if they were lucky. She was already calling it a sign of bad luck.

Eventually, Naruto decided that if Ino spent any more time trying to perfect her ponytail or reading newspapers, she would miss her own wedding, and bullied her out of the door.

* * *

The ceremony took place on top of the Hokage tower – anything major for ninja always happened on top of the Hokage tower.

The raised platform that had had last been used for the funeral of the third Hokage now was now occupied in the centre by an unwillingly officially-garbed Tsunade, the Daimyo, and the priest.

Down a three-step flight, was the spot were Ino and Itachi stood, flanked by the four people chosen to be witnesses on their behalf. Behind that stood the recipients of the invites; the clan representatives were at the very front, and the rest of the guests in line with them.

Naruto stood third from the left, Tsume Inuzuka on her right, and Shikaku Nara on her left; Tsume kept grinning at her in encouragement, and Shikaku occasionally told her to ignore the bigots or keep her chin up, but this was still very nerve racking.

She could hear the whispers of the people behind her who didn't know who her father was, muttering and whispering as they discussed which clan she was representing.

Ino for her part, seemed to have calmed down significantly, but Sasuke and Obito kept muttering things to Itachi; he didn't look nervous, but his movements seemed almost mechanical as Tsunade called for order, and he and Ino were required to stand in front of the raised platform.

"Silence! Today's gathering commemorates one of the largest inter-clan marriages in Konoha's history, that of Itachi Uchiha and Ino Yamanaka; both have agreed to the terms set down by their families and have come before the Daimyo, myself, and the divinities of Fire Country for official recognition..."

Naruto already felt bored, and that was only the introductory part of Tsunade's speech; she continued on for a few more minuets, going over the final terms for the marriage contract, making sure they were understood and no more amendments were needed, before giving her approval and calling the Daimyo forward.

The Daimyo, a somewhat sleep deprived man with wrinkles, big hair, and a pocket fan continually in his hand, stepped forwards and Naruto immediately flinched in time with Sasuke and Ino – this man was the owner of that demon cat they had chased as Genin, or his wife was.

They used to have somewhat murderous thoughts towards the animal in the past, and Naruto fervently hoped he wasn't going to hold that against Ino if he somehow read their minds.

He asked them to repeat their names, ranks, and positions within their clans. He raised an eyebrow when Ino told him her rank, but she was quick to add that her medic rank was at the very least equal to Chunin, and that she was already intending on attending the Chunin exams in Iwagakure this year.

"You are sixteen, almost seventeen now Miss Yamanaka; may I ask why there was such a delay in your rise to Chunin if you are indeed as competent as you suggest?" he asked curiously.

"My team-mate, Itachi's brother, was abducted some years ago by Orochimaru; it was the hope of myself and my third team-mate that we attempt to find and bring him back before applying for the Chunin exams – we succeeded, so we'll be leaving for the Chunin exams in Iwagakure in a few weeks" she replied.

He seemed to recognise the name Orochimaru, and he dropped the matter, asking a few more questions that seemed to have nothing to do with legalities before calling the four people accompanying them to the front instead. His eyes immediately flicked to Sasuke, then to Itachi, and another curious look came across his face.

"I presume you would be the team-mate Miss Yamanaka mentioned; you are not any worse for wear after your experiences I trust?" he asked, tapping his closed fan against his chin.

Naruto almost snorted as the nervousness built up in Sasuke's fists.

"No sir – my chakra control was a bit of a mess after being restricted for so long, but that's no longer an issue" he replied, almost as mechanical in his words as Itachi had been his actions.

"Good good; if you don't mind my asking, how can you vouch for your brother if you haven't present for the past few years?" he asked, tapping the fan again.

"I know my brother sir – he hasn't changed much; if getting married was going to get in the way of his job he wouldn't do it, and he wouldn't marry someone without enough sense to do the same themselves. He's logical like that..."

Sasuke frowned to himself, obviously thinking the same thing she was – Itachi was too logical sometimes, and a good dose of illogical from Ino was going to do him wonders.

The Daimyo moved on to Obito – who basically repeated what she had just been thinking with a bit more dress around it, stressing it that getting married was probably the best thing for him. Next, Inoro and Shikamaru were interrogated – Shikamaru's answer was fairly blank, but that was to be expected from a Nara, and the Daimyo was not too surprised.

Inoro took a bit of time to explain what Kiba had told him of the fight with Madara – Ino hadn't gone nuts until they were back in village walls, and only that was momentary (the Daimyo agreed that it was to be expected under the circumstances), as well as backing up her up the same way Obito had Itachi (_'she's got a tendency to forget she's allowed a break sometimes, and Itachi has problems convincing her otherwise. He's not going to distract her without some serious effort'_).

Then he turned to each of the clan representatives, and Naruto felt her heart speeding up – Shibi Aburame, Choza Akimichi, Mizuno Haruno, Hiashi Hyuuga, and Tsume all gave him their short opinions on the union (only tight-ass Hiashi expressed any reservations, and they were still small), before he stopped in front of her.

"You're rather young to represent a clan miss; would you care to share your name and position with me?" he asked, tapping that infernal fan again, a little glint in his eye.

Naruto briefly remembered Homura telling her that the Daimyo was aware of everything that had occurred surrounding her birth and the memory removal Fugaku had imposed. He wasn't even involved in the memory alteration, but he wasn't likely to be sharing what he knew either.

"Naruto Namikaze; Minato Namikaze was my father – oh, and I'm still a Genin" she replied.

There was an immediate chatter of whispers from the crowd behind her, and she just knew there were a few raised eyebrows further down the row she stood in. The Daimyo seemed mildly amused by the whole thing.

"How interesting; you would be the third team-mate then?"

"Yes sir – Ino wanted me to be a witness, but that's only for family, so I'm over here instead. I told her it wasn't important but she has that super-strength thing going on, so I figured it would be best not to argue" she replied grinning at the man.

He flipped open his fan to cover his own grin; he obviously picked up on the hints she had laced into reply; _'I'm supposed to be up there with Itachi, but since we don't know how to release the memory technique and Ino is pig-headed, I'm vouching for them from my father's family instead'._

"Wouldn't that make you a little biased?" he asked from behind the fan.

"Probably, but like I said Ino was adamant sir – she has a strong punch and I didn't want the bruises. I'll do my best to be diplomatic about it though" she replied.

She swore she heard a snort from behind that fan then.

"Very well then Miss Namikaze; I've never seen a clan representative who was still a Genin before, but I'll give you an ear; based on your knowledge is this marriage likely to cause problems likely to cause problems for Konoha, or my country?" he asked, repeating the question he had asked the other representatives.

Naruto pretended to think about it for a few moments.

"I don't think their jobs are going to suffer, but their neighbours might; Ino tends to yell when she's mad, and she's been yelling at Itachi since we were kids in the academy. Then again, the neighbours can't really say anything since Itachi's clan head so… Nope - to my knowledge, there's no problem!" she grinned.

He tapped his fan again, thanked her for her contribution (she swore he winked at her), before moving on to Shikaku and Asuma; both were positive responses. He then went back to Ino and Itachi and made a whole speech stating that, after listening to the evidence, he had decided to give them his approval.

The new loyalty oath took only a few moments, and the Daimyo was replaced by the old priest – that man really was tough as old nails, and she made a note to go and pay her respects more often as he took Ino's right hand, and laid Itachi's left over the top of it, holding the them both between his wrinkled ones.

"These two have given their vows of loyalty to the Hokage, and to the Daimyo, but their import is besides the real matter here. Legalities aside, this is a wedding, and the vows they make to each other are far more important than business" the old man told the crowd in a strong tone of voice.

Naruto couldn't help but agree with him – being a ninja really sucked when it took over events like this. For some reason, she felt that this one thing should be easy for her brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law. She would never have simple – not only because she attracted trouble like a lamp would a moth, but because it wouldn't mean anything to her if it was too easy.

She liked the calm days, but only because they balanced against the turbulent ones; if she could get past the turbulence to the calm, it was that much better, but that was her. Ino didn't like problems, Itachi didn't like things that he couldn't control – simple was better for them, but just getting married was a farce by itself.

She caught a glance at Sasuke as the old priest continued speaking to the crowd – he had launched into the story of when Ino had first met Itachi in his graveyard, much to their embarrassment and the crowd's amusement. He had a strange look on his face, and she wondered if he was thinking the same thing.

The old man stopped speaking, and Naruto dragged her wandering thoughts back to the ceremony. Itachi was starting his vows. He stared at Ino for a long moment before he started speaking.

"I love you – I know I've not done much to show it recently, and I don't say it very often, but I do, that's it. Nothing fancy or complicated that no-one's going to remember ten years down the line. I love you. Plain and simple."

Naruto had to bite her lip – she was not going to cry at Itachi going into sappy mode. She would not cry! She couldn't be crying when Ino was doing her vows – she had a bit more to say than Itachi by the looks of it, and she could not look like Sakura just yet (the girl had stared silently bawling when the Daimyo had given them his _'approval'_, and Hinata and even Tenten were close behind her at this point).

Ino drew herself up to her full height and gave Itachi a very pointed look.

"I'm going to yell at you a lot; I'm stubborn, and I don't like being wrong, so I'll definitely shout a lot, and I tend to blurt things when I shout, so for when I say something I'm not going to mean, this here..."

Ino gestured to the space between them and the two hands still held by those of the priest.

"...this is the real stuff okay? I'm going to shout, and you'll yell, because you're never wrong, and I won't listen – cuz I don't like being wrong – and I still think this is the most stupid idea ever, like stupid mode, but... this is the real stuff, and I'll be just as quick to go into stupid mode for you because that's real too, not that you'll need it being a genius and all that crap, but it..."

Ino chewed her lip in frustration.

"... I give up! I memorized it, I swear I did, but it just a bunch of fluffy frippery that I'm not gonna remember either, so screw it all! I love you too. There. That's It. I'm done."

She turned to the priest impatiently.

"Are we married now?" She asked bluntly, drawing an out right chuckle from the Daimyo as well as the crowd of people behind her.

The priest chuckled before replying, _'no - not yet'_, and starting to recite something religious, asking the will of fire to see them through all the rough patches and all the other sappy stuff that seemed to be making Ino ever more impatient.

As he got to the end, he draped a silken red cord around their hands – Ino would keep that once it was all over – before turning to Ino with a smile on his face.

"Now?" she asked.  
"Now." he replied.

Ino jumped up (Itachi was easily a head taller than her), wrapped her arms around Itachi's neck, and kissed him full on the lips; it was probably seeing how quickly Itachi's arms moved to keep her those few inches for the ground that broke the dam holding back waterworks than had long consumed Sakura.

Even as she grinned and cheered with the rest of the guests, she felt the irrational stab of jealousy.

* * *

Sasuke frowned in his sleep when the warm lump he had become accustomed to disappeared; he sleepily fumbled around the bed beside his own with one arm, and blearily opened his eyes when it found nothing. A flash of lightning lit up the room, and his eyes turned involuntarily towards the open window.

Poking his head out of the window, he looked over at the balcony adjoining the training room; seeing nothing he surmised she had climbed up onto the roof. Again. Why did she always go looking for the roof when there was a thunderstorm?

He was a little less peeved when he clambered up to join her; she had had the good sense to take a blanket up with her this time, keeping the flecks of rain beginning to drop over Konoha off of her skin. She barley noticed his presence as he took a seat beside her, simply holding out half of the blanket for his use.

"What's wrong?" he asked, not bothering to beat about the bush.

"I'm jealous. Of Ino. I don't like jealousy – it feels disgusting, but it isn't going away" she replied just as bluntly.

Thunderstorms always made it easier to get things out of her. She was distracted by them, and didn't put as much effort into keeping things to herself. He didn't quite understand where the emotions came from, and she seemed to notice his confusion because she continues talking.

"It's so simple for Ino and Itachi – well, not _that_ simple, but... we won't get that. I'm not jumping the gun here, but it'd be nice to have the option in the future..."

Oh. Now he understood; the laws on inter-clan marriage only extended to third and second cousins. They wouldn't even get the option to consider following in their brother's footsteps – Konoha law would stop them at the first hurdle.

"I've know that for ages, I knew I was setting myself up for all these obstacles when I found out I even had the Sharingan but... watching Ino today really made me jealous of her, and knowing I can't even have that _option_... it makes me wonder if... if everything I did was really worth it, and then I feel even worse for even _thinking_ that..."

Something in her words gnawed at him, but he ignored it for the moment, the same feelings beginning to probe the edges of his own thoughts. He put an arm around her shoulders as her head leaned onto his own. He hadn't really thought about that side of the wedding (it had been kind of boring and too restricted to be of interest), but now that she mentioned it...

"You might have a point there." her murmured, dragging her in front of him and running his arms around her waist.

She always felt warmer than the usual person for some reason, and he didn't even notice the harsh chill in the wind; he put it down to her current two chakra elements, and the Kyuubi all milling through her veins.

His thoughts drifted back to her words again; _'if everything I did was worth it'_ stuck out particularly for some reason. She sounded almost... angry? Regretful? No, that wasn't it, but there was something odd about them. If _what_ was worth it? She made it sound like she had killed Ino or something equally heinous despite the blank tone of voice.

"What _did_ you do Naruto?" he asked quietly, almost before the notion even entered his mind.

There was a long silence, and he felt the stiffening of her back against his chest, before giving him a reply filled with fear and honesty.

"Nothing."

He didn't really like the tense atmosphere, and he didn't really want to think of what she could possibly be talking about, so he wracked his brains for something to distract both their minds from the dreary subject. An idea occurred to him, and he pulled her to her feet.

She followed him back into the apartment with obvious curiosity; he disappeared into the training room, and returned with a carved wooden box in his hand. He sat down on the edge of the bed and handed it to her, watching as her eyes lit up in recognition.

"That's the box you found in your dad's study when we were nosing around the hospital! Deidara mentioned it when we went to rescue Gaara! I looked for that everywhere! Where was it?" she asked, quickly turning the box over in her hands, examining the carved writing indicating the original owner on the bottom, then the seals keeping it closed.

"I left it at our grandparents' house after the invasion; I never got a chance to give it back to you once we figured out who your dad was... It was when those sound freaks showed up" he replied, watching her poke and prod at the box.

He had thought there was just a blood seal on it, but several more complicated looking ones had shown up at the corners and the scribble that he now recognised as one of the sealing alphabets on the sides had revealed themselves, darkened by Naruto's blood.

She prodded various seals, biting her lip deep in thought as she glanced at the scribble around the edges (he couldn't call it scribble to her face, but what he thought in his own head was his affair). After barley two minuets, the box lid fractioned open with an audible _'click'_.

She didn't open it, she just sat staring at the box for a few moments before turning to wrap her arms around his neck in silent thanks, though if it was for the change of subject, or for the box itself, he didn't know. He returned the gesture with one arm, and then disappeared again.

He came back with a piece of parchment torn off of a blank scroll and sat down beside her once again.

"I don't really think I'd like having to get permission and all that pomp, so it didn't bother me until you mentioned it but... it's only a bit of paper with some writing on it, so if we write something ourselves, it counts doesn't it? We don't have to bother with the oath either, so we can write whatever we want" he informed her holding the piece of paper towards he without looking her in the eye.

He didn't like this sappy sort of stuff at all; this was Itachi's malarkey, and judging by the odd look she gave him as she took the piece of paper in hand, she thought so too.

In spite of the odd look she gave him though, she dug an ink brush out of her pack along with a bottle of ink, along with a nib pen. After a couple of simple seals (she barley looked at them as she moved the tip of the brush), she dunked the pen in the ink, and began to draw out a few lines if writing.

She glanced at what she had written, then handed the pen and paper to him; he took them, and glanced at what she had already written:_ 'Nine Rules for Naruto __Uz-ma-__ Namikaze and Sasuke Uchiha.'_

He smirked at the crossing out of her old name – she was still having problems getting used to her father's name apparently. His eyes wandered to the first line she had written: '_One; Fight from the seventh hell and back for the other – nothing less is permitted (N.N).'_

He cursed; he had intended to something like that one down first – now he had to think of something else. After a few moments he finally scribbled something down, and handed it back to her:_ 'Two; opinions and social norms can go screw themselves – never listen (S.U).' _

Naruto grinned as she read, scribbling again, and handing it back to him: _'Three; anything said in argument is stricken from the record as stupid – ignore such speeches (N.N). _

He rolled his eyes at the words inked in Naruto's now incredibly neat handwriting, but felt a smirk on his face as he added another rule of his own:_ 'Four; there is never a winner – winning is loosing, and loosing is not permitted to either party - he game is always on (S.U).'_

Naruto snickered as she read his writing, and added another line: _'Five; never succumb to 'Stupid Mode' – 'Stupid Mode' is useable, but must never be succumbed to under any circumstances (N.N).'_

He gave the fifth rule an approving nod as he added his third sentence to the parchment: _'Six; these rules are the only rules – ignore all others if they become even the slightest hindrance (S.U).'_

He didn't expect her eyes to widen when she read over the sixth line, and he eyed the newest with a raised eyebrow once the sheet was handed back to him: _'Seven; everything wrong is right – never doubt this (N.N).'_

He thought back to his question earlier, and looking over what had been written so far, the more he thought that, despite the honesty in her voice, she had done something. He was not paranoid about all the little niggles in the slightest – was it possible that she wanted him to notice them?

This in mind, he wrote down the second-to-last rule, and patiently examined her features as she flicked her eyes over it: _'Eight; the phrase 'ignorance is bliss' does not apply in any circumstance – do not suffer secrets if they are suspected (S.U).'_

Her face remained blank, but when he cast his eyes over the final line, reading over her shoulder this time, he was certain it was a confirmation of some sort: _'Nine; promises are not to be broken – these rules can never be broken (N.N).'_

There was a short pause as she added another few words, and scribbled her name (without mistake this time) at the bottom of the paper on a hastily drawn line, and he continued to peer over her shoulder before adding his own name beside hers; _'These rules are a guide for the crazy patches, stupid patches, and the patches that don't make sense. Failure to follow these rules is to loose. Signed, Naruto Namikaze, Sasuke Uchiha.'_

Naruto fiddled about with the seals, dropping tiny pin-pricks of her blood into one seal in the bottom left corner, then doing the same with his own, holding his thumb over it (he had followed her lead and already bitten it by the time she was done). After some concentration, he was certain it was a privacy seal, keyed exactly to their blood and no-one else's.

He had seen those before, so he recognised it; did she know that? If she did or not, it was clear she wanted this to remain a private thing for more than one reason. Still, dreary thoughts inside, he thought that was a heck better than what Itachi and Ino had ended up signing – it really was the _'real stuff'_, to use Ino's words. Even if the sappiness curdled his blood a little.

Naruto tucked the parchment into the box, not fully opening it – she poked it through the small gap that had appeared when the lid clicked open without even seeing the contents. She then closed the box (the dark writing on the edge completely disappeared), and tucked under the edge of her bed.

She turned back to him, a strange, pointed looked on her face for some reason, before lightly kissing him – he heard a whispered thanks (for what he didn't know), and then she crawled back under her duvet, giving a moments pause to close the window.

He followed suit, not objecting at all when she immediately curled closer to him; despite the flurry of questions, building theories, emotions, and thoughts whirling in his mind, he was sleeping almost as quickly as she was.

* * *

Ino awoke blearily the day after her wedding; it was a very odd thing, she thought, feeling married.

How could you feel married? It wasn't an emotion, or something tangible, like a texture, but she definitely felt oddly different; it was a good different, but still felt odd in a way. Was it because she was off the singles market for definite now? Because her address had actually changed now?

She didn't really know, but she liked it; she had woken up next to Itachi since Naruto had stolen her things, moved them in without permission, and dragged Sasuke back to her own apartment on the other side of the village, and this was the best time yet (heck, even the sex had seemed better last night, if that was even possible).

She felt oddly triumphant knowing that half the female population in the village were crying and cursing her name because she was the one who had caught him (the rest were crying over Sasuke), and that she could now stare at him whenever she wanted, and he couldn't complain.

It took some time to pry his arm off of her – a common trait amongst the Uchiha family, it seemed, was possessiveness – but she managed to escape his clutches; she took a brief moment to stare at his snoring face as she pulled on her underwear and a discarded shirt.

She liked seeing the calm on his face in the morning, before he had time to get a shower and actually wake up – he was always dazed, and even walked into things on occasion. There was nothing troubling his mind at this time of the morning, and he was more affectionate to those lucky enough to catch him in such a mood.

Searching the kitchen for something to eat (this did not sound hard, but given that Itachi usually ordered every meal from a takeaway, it was very difficult indeed), and found a box of cherry tomatoes (she had brought those though), some eggs that may or may not have passed their use by date, and some mouldy cheese. There was also, by some miracle, fresh milk in the house for once.

She made a tsk-ing noise several times as she searched the cupboards for food; why did Itachi keep forgetting to hire someone? They didn't even have to be a house keeper, just someone who could drill the very very basics of making food without burning or under cooking it into them!

Maybe if she waited a few days and pulled the wife card, he'd listen to her properly next time – she might have just sounded like a nagging girlfriend then, but a nagging wife was less easy to ignore, right?

After searching, she also found several boxes of Naruto's instant ramen, several varieties of tea, rice, and some kind of unlabeled frozen meat; she was tempted by the ramen, but after checking the eggs, she decided that she could attempt some actual cooking first.

Naruto had taught her how to make omelettes, and she was certain she could make them again – not even plain ones, but tomato omelettes. If she trimmed away the mould on the cheese, she could use that right? Naruto always trimmed the mould off of hers and just used the stuff like it was fresh...

There was quite a bit of it left once she trimmed of all the green stuff, and the eggs looked alright once she cracked them. After putting a bit of milk in the eggs (Naruto said use cream, but she doubted cream had ever existed in this kitchen), and adding chopped up tomatoes and grated cheese, she mixed it all up.

It still looked alright, so she started the long hunt for the frying pan; it was a very long hunt, because she heard Itachi's footsteps heading for the bowl of eggy mix whilst her head was stuck in one of the lower cupboards.

"Ino, what are you doing?"

"I'm making omelettes – I don't want ramen, and I am not ordering take-out today! Naruto taught me, and if it works for her, it'll work for me too! For the love of fire, do you even _have_ a frying pan? Why are you up so early anyway?"

She pulled her head out of the cupboard and looked at the blank incomprehension on his face as he stared at the mix – surely he wasn't so bad as to have never seen omelette mix before?

"I can't remember exactly – I think I was looking for something. I didn't mention it last night did I?" he asked, fighting back a yawn – she shook her head, and moved on to another cupboard.

Itachi couldn't tell her if they had a frying pan or not, but she did find one. After some more rummaging, she also found oil to keep the mix from sticking (there had been butter in the fridge, but that had been growing more than green stuff, so she threw that out – most of the things in the fridge had been thrown out). It was with some trepidation that she poured the mix onto the pan.

She waited till it began to firm up a bit, noting the obvious fascination on Itachi's face as she figured out the heat settings on the cooker; perhaps Itachi's inability to cook came from the fact he had never been interested in it? He seemed very interested watching her trying not to burn eggs cheese and tomatoes.

Once it seemed sturdy enough, she chopped it in half with the handle of a metal spoon (apparently he didn't even know what a spatula was), and flipped them both over. She held no shame in the victory dance that emerged when they were not burnt, just nice and golden.

"Do you know how to cook rice?" she asked.

"I think so – just stick it in the rice cooker with some water right?"

There was probably a little more to it than that, but he seemed to understand the basics, and she put him on rice duty as she carefully watched the omelettes. He was a little stumped when the cooker didn't turn on, but that had easily solved by plugging the machine in.

For the first time in probably years, there was an actual meal in the Uchiha household, and Itachi's morning wooziness seemed to drop away as they ate. It seemed awfully domesticated, and not really very ninja-ish, and she probably wouldn't be able to make anything else without instruction from someone (Naruto had already told her she had her hands full with teaching Sasuke the basics of cooking meat, so that was a no-go), but she still felt all soft and squishy.

She was going over the as-yet-unnamed teamwork technique when Itachi emerged from the shower (the dishes lay forgotten), looking much his usual self. Kakashi's suggestions had got her thinking, and she was trying to think of a way that would let them manipulate the chakra of others when he dropped it in her lap.

It was a plain silvery ring (probably white gold or platinum), with a red stone.

"It was mother's when she married my father – I thought you needed one, but I wanted to keep the one she had from Minato for Sasuke to give Naruto, so my grandmother gave me that yesterday." he stated simply, tucking the ends of his trouser into some mesh as per the usual routine.

She stared at him, the ring, and fought back a groan; she hadn't cared about a ring – ninja had no need for rings – but now that he had given her the thing all she could think of was how bad he was with his timing. The only things that kept her from punching him into the wall was that this really was a very romantic gesture on his part, and that the silvery colour on the band would probably match a chain she had from her mother.

She couldn't wear the thing on her finger – too easy to loose when throwing kunai about and the stone would probably be crushed when she punched something – but she could put it on a chain. Itachi was spending a lot of time fiddling with the ends of his trousers, and she felt that smug grin again.

The fiddling stopped when she kissed him with some force, before darting off to find that chain before her own shower. Yes, being married was odd, but Itachi had been right about it after all. She'd never tell him that though – not for a few years at any rate.

* * *

I know, not very romantic, but I see Konoha as a vary militarian place. I couldn't decide to go with western or Japanese for the wedding either; I don't see a western wedding fitting in any Naruto ninjaverse, but wikipedia was useless for a gude on Japanese ones, so I made up my own that ties in with future plot better. There were several foreshaddowing hints in this chapter - it's the end of the easy patch with for Team 7 now. Things are going to start hotting up again next chapter^^

This chapter is dedicated to Montrealae Yaoi Extrodonaire for the Fanart she sent me From Part I; I have no online link unfortunately, but I love it all the same, so this chapter is for her!

Hope you liked the mush - personally it was hard to write, and I'm relived to be getting back to the angsty side of things, but that's just me. I like a good angst sandwich ^^;  
Nat.  
xxx


	21. She Has Her Mother's Eyes

**A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS**

* * *

**ACT II: SCENE XXI  
~ SHE HAS HER MOTHER'S EYES ~**

* * *

Naruto dreamed about her parents again thE night after Ino's wedding – that one time in the hospital when she saw her mothers face, saw her father and Deidara staring down at her, heard Itachi. She'd bet Sasuke had been somewhere nearby at that point too.

There was nothing odd about the dream – she had dreamt it before, but the itching in her eyes they day before seemed like a warning. That was why she had put as many hints as she could on that piece of paper the night before.

Ever since her Sharingan had been sealed away, she hadn't heard a pip from Madara, confirming her theory that he was getting into her mind using her Sharingan and his own – something to do with relation no doubt, even if it was distant, but that itching...

It had been the same as outside Ichiraku's almost four years ago, and it had only been self control that forced her not to scream at the burning in them in front of Sasuke and pass it of as a yawn. It meant that her Sharingan was coming back after little over two months, and with the Sharingan would come Madara, the nightmares, and all the illusions she could never dispel or pick up on.

Since she couldn't hear Madara, she felt it safe to assume he couldn't hear her, or was connected to her – he wouldn't know of anything she told Sasuke before they came back properly. She knew how to keep her thoughts from straying to places she didn't want them to, but Madara had a horrible habit of finding the ones she didn't want him to all the same.

Thus the privacy seals; no one but Sasuke would be able to read them – she had put her own blood on solely for the creation of the seals. Sasuke was the only one who could read them. She didn't dare let herself have the the ability to look at them in case it brought them to the forefront of her mind.

She had made a great fuss of showing him where she had put them, and she hoped that, when he found the box open in the morning, he would take them and hide them somewhere she couldn't find them. He had to read them carefully, piece them together with anything she could tell him without killing herself in the process (and thus him).

Once her Sharingan came back fully, she had a horrible feeling Madara would have her start whatever favour he wanted from her, and would have found another way to draw her into another and another... anything she would be able to tell him from then on wouldn't be much.

She could hardly believed he had noticed something was off already – she had left a few hints as best she could, but not many. Sasuke should have paid more attention when they studied seals – he'd have been really good if he had put his mind to it. Maybe she should loan him the idiots introduction book Jiraiya had given her for the journey to Iwagakure.

Urgh. Iwagakure; that was another headache. Now that her name had come out in the village, there was bound to be talk in the others, and she wasn't certain that Iwagakure was going to be too friendly once she arrived. There were rumours that blond babies were killed there...

It didn't really inspire much hope, but she and Ino were both sick of the restrictions that came with being Genin, and Sasuke would probably zap their asses if he had to wait another six months for promotion. After disentangling his arm from her waist (that really was irritating sometimes), she fished the box from beneath her bed and locked herself in the bathroom with it.

Opening was quicker than it had been the night before, but opening it took a moments pause; she picked up the first piece of paper she came across, holding it in the lid so it didn't get lost. It looked like plain paper, but she knew what it was.

The second piece was a small folded note; on inspection it revealed either a quick scrawl, or that the writer was not yet brilliant at writing. It was an I.O.U for the Hiraishin scroll, and the word Hiraishin was spelled rather badly wrong. Suspicions that had been building since Sasuke's return bubbled in her gut, and she picked up the larger note.

After one glance, she knew that the writer of the note wasn't brilliant at writing simply by young age – not only the spelling errors, but the language hinted at that. It also seemed to have been added to more recently – there was newer looking ink further down the paper._  
_

* * *

_Naruto,_

_I dunno when I'm coming back, but Dad says I have to look after you and Aunt Miki – no-one knows where she is, but I don't think she's coming back. _

_That man with the creepy mask, it's his fault, so I'm going to follow him. Uncle Fugaku is talking about doing something to stop you from dreaming all the nasty stuff, and making everyone in the village forget or something, cause Iwa and Kumo are snooping, including me, and I don't like that. _

_I promised dad, so I'm going to follow that creepy guy. He's going to come back one day, and he's going to try and use the Kyuubi again. I took dad's Hiraishin, but I left the Rasengan scroll – I'll try get it back to you, when you're bigger (you're really tiny, though your lungs are different – they're huuuge). _

_You aren't going to remember me - cause Uncle Fugaku is wiping your memory too – so... I'm your brother. You've got three, and I'm the biggest. _

_There's Itachi too -he's second (not by much, but still second), and he's really quiet and boring sometimes, but he's really smart. He's got a brother called Sasuke, and he's only a year older than you; he chews people's hair a lot, and he always cries when you glare at him (I dunno why, cuz you can't glare very scary), but he always shares his toys, so I guess he'll be okay. _

_They're both your mum's kids – mine's different, but our dad's the same. People don't like you much because he sealed the Kyuubi inside you (ask uncle Fugaku about that if you don't know – he's probably gonna keep his eye on you. Plus he's been making icky eyes at my mum, and she's looking after you now), but he didn't have a choice. _

_That mask guy was doing a whole load of things no-one tells me about, but I can tell it's bad, and they don't know anything. That's why I'm going – someone needs to watch him properly, and I promised dad. If you see me before you read this, I'm probably going to be really mean, so I'm really sorry, but you're going to be a ninja when your'e big, so you'll understand that. _

_I'm going to come back when you're bigger, to make sure you're doing okay, but you won't see me. Ignore mean people – just prank em if they bug you – and... eat veg? Nah, veg is yucky, ramen's better. Eat ramen! I'll see you when I see you._

_Deidara.  
_

* * *

Really, it was hard to read – it was hastily written, and Deidara's handwriting was... unimpressive – but the basic jist was there. Deidara had left before Fugaku had the chance to include him in the memory wipe, he was a double agent. Unsurprisingly, she felt a little guilty for calling him a bad Akatsuki when he showed her where Juugo's base was.

There was another wave of guilt as well; he had dropped his entire life to keep her away from Madara, and he still had his claws in her. That really stung. She scanned the older message again, and did some mental arithmetic; he must have been about six years old when he wrote this...

She didn't dare dwell on the thought and moved on to the newer message._  
_

* * *

_Naruto,_

_It's me again – I'm writing this after the invasion by Suna and Oto. Your team-mates just left with the old pervert to go find Tsunade. I hope you don't mind, but I broke into the hospital and used a few healing techniques myself – the doctors at the hospital have really gone downhill since I was here last._

_I can't fix whatever's wrong with you, but I can certainly keep you alive long enough for Tsunade to arrive._

_You've obviously met Madara – isn't he a lovely chap? Seriously, try to stay away from him in the future. I haven't managed to get into his demon catching club yet – I'll have to make a bit more of a bang before they recruit me – but I know that whatever he's done to you isn't just a resurgence technique (Tsunade will tell you what that is later)._

_That man is horribly obsessed with the Sharingan, and he's been after yours for years. Or, he's very interested in what it means for the Kyuubi. That's half the reason why he killed Kushina – though I still can't prove that was him. I think he's been trying to pile as much crap onto you as he can to make it wake up, though I think that's already happened._

_Since you've read the message above, you'll know that Sasuke is your brother now, but if you have our fathers brains then you'll already know that the Sharingan runs through the main line of the Uchihas. I don't really know why you're still dating Sasuke, but I'll tell myself no one told you that incest it considered socially abnormal by most people except the Hyuugas._

_There; that's all I'm going to say on that because I don't really have the right to butt in like this when you have all this new information flooding your head (I'm assuming it's new). If you keep going after all this, well, I'll think you're a little crazy, but that's it – at least Sasuke has double incentive to keep you out of trouble._

_The main reason I'm leaving this message it to let you know that the technique that Fugaku used to keep your memories a secret hasn't ended; I got here a few days before the exam and edited the scroll he used so that it would pass to me just in case that happened (even if it took half the night to figure out where to write my damn name)._

_I wouldn't recommend shouting this out just yet, but when you do want to take the technique off (try to aim for Chunin rank – or at the very least capability – before you do, for my own peace of mind if nothing else), go to the cemetery. I left the scroll with that old priest when the invasion started (no one messes with priests). Once you get it, drop some blood onto the three big seals, and make sure Inochi and Jiraiya are nearby to handle the rest._

_If I get into the Akatsuki (that's the name of the demon-cathcers club – get Jiraiya to explain it to you), I plan to stay there for a year, or until I get something major from them. After that, I'm coming back. I don't care if you don't want me around – I'll have my own place, but I'm keeping an eye on you where ever I'm going to be in a few years. _

_Try to talk to the other Jinchuriki, especially the guy from Kumogakure – he's helped me out a lot, even if I don't tell him much. He's a good guy, though he can't rap to save his life. You'll get some tips on controlling the Kyuubi better from them._

_Stop trying to steal Kakashi's icha Icha (Yes, I know about that). You're way too young for those books! Keep eating the ramen, and ignore what I said about the vegetables in the last message – eat them. Oh, and get some new clothes! Or at the very least, learn how to use the zip on your jacket! _

_Keep working on the seals – I've left some of my mothers scrolls in here on seals. I'm sure you learned about the Uzumaki clan in the academy, so you can appreciate the value of them._

_I'll get the hiraishin back to you at some other time – its giving me some headaches at the moment. Keep yourself out of trouble sis._

_Deidara._

* * *

Naruto actually laughed at the last instruction – keep herself out of trouble? She had been born in trouble! Not a week went by she wasn't trying to balance a few headaches around everything else! Deidara was clearly an optimist. She looked back into the box, and removed the two scrolls that had been left there – they didn't have any blood seals on.

After glancing once, she felt like dancing; she could already see the headway with the Uchiha scrolls this was going to help her make!

Laughing aside though, she would have to show this to Tsunade; they needed to find him. This was the proof they needed to clear his name up. She'd have to go find that scroll belonging to the priest too – she was sick of being thought of as someone else, and of having no clear answer other than the less than detailed account from Homura.

The village didn't matter; they'd have to start after the Chunin exams though, but that wouldn't stop her from planting a few seeds of suspicion – it would be easier if people had a suspicion before dropping the paper bomb on them.

They had to find him though – it didn't matter when, they just had to find Deidara. Madara obviously knew he was a spy if he'd organised it so he rescued Sasuke. Why had she ever been in doubt of it anyway? It had been there, right in front of her since she had first met him on the way to rescue Gaara, subtle, but there all the same.

Maybe it had been the Akatsuki cloak, she pondered, turning on the hot water and stepping into the shower, it was so obviously evil to her that it blotted out anything good about the person wearing it. It really had been so obvious!

He had been helping Sasuke for... for who knew how long when he was in Otogakure. It was thanks to Deidara that he was even able to get a message to them in the first place, even if it was a nightmare to decode...

As she continued to ponder the matter, a piercing stab surged from her eyes into her head, an awful burning that made her want to claw her eyes out – she restrained that disaster, but kept her hands flat against her eyes, something trickling through her fingers from what felt like her retinas themselves.

The ache in her head was growing, the familiar sensation that came with a new memory – the sensation had been a light twinge before but this... she had to bite her lip to keep herself from yelling as the images rushed through her mind._  
_

* * *

_As a familiar, jostling motion woke her, the awful images faded. The motion was better this time – less jerky, and the mumbled noises that it wasn't real, or that it was fine, sounded different. They sounded the same as the voice of that bigger yellow blob._

_She didn't really know what the sound meant, but she had never seen the bigger yellow blob again, and she didn't like not seeing the yellow blob. For the first time, she opened her eyes, and her eyes stared hard at the blob staring down at her – it had the same look on its face as the bigger blob had. She didn't like that at all._

"_I'm gonna look after you all right? We'll both be big when we see each other again, and you won't see me here, and you probably won't like me, or even know who I am, but I'll do it all the same. All right?"_

_She stared at him, not understanding his words at all – what did that mean? Did it mean he was going to disappear too? Was he going to where the bigger blob had  
gone? Her face crumpled thought, and she felt him give her a short, tight squeeze – it wasn't too tight, but there was something in it that told her she wasn't going to see the smaller blob again either._

_She didn't like that – she liked the little blob, it always stopped that nasty thing from happening again, even if it made her feel odd when jiggled her. She tried to protest as he lad her back down, but she didn't know how to tell it not to do that, that she didn't want it to go._

_The cover was wrapped around her, and she increased her protests – still nothing. It hovered over her for a few moments before leaning down, and she felt something on her forehead, and a quiet murmur._

"_Bye bye Naruto."_

* * *

Naruto fell to the bottom of the shower as the stab in her mind subsided, leaving behind the irrefutable evidence that Deidara had been on her side all along. The burning remained in her eyes, something still leaking through her fingers with an iron, metallic scent. It was a scent that never accompanied tears.

Eventually, the burning subsided, and the blood stopped running through her fingers and down her face; she watched as the water of the shower washed it away in watery ribbons of pale pink. Once it disappeared from the water completely, she stared into one of the white tiles that lines the wall of her shower.

The watery reflection was a nightmare; two fully matured swirling red irises stared back in place of lapis blue.

_...Hello again Naruto..._

* * *

"Are you sure you have everything?" Itachi repeated for the fifth time, watching as she slung her backpack onto her shoulder.

Naruto had to stifle the roll of her eyes; she had been packing her bag by herself since she was a Genin. She was hardly going to make a mistake now was she?

"Yes Itachi! I have kunai, shuriken, exploding tags, my sealing kit, and all the scrolls!"  
"What about clothes? Have you got those pills in case your Sharingan wakes up early?"  
"Itachi, I know how to pack a bag! I have everything!" she yelped, sick of all his mother-hening.

He was worse than Iruka had been in the academy! Sasuke snickered as he pulled on his own rucksack, his sword moved to a loop attached to his belt instead of it's usual spot on his back – her shuriken had been sealed away inside a scroll with everything else. Her rucksack was full of ramen – Jiraiya had told her horror stories about the food at Mt. Myoboku, and she was taking no chances.

She had decided not to tell them that her Sharingan had woken up early – Sasuke had already noticed something was off, but now that she had the ringleader of the demon-catching club giving her a hello again, she didn't know if it would be in her best interests to tell them. She'd just have to hope Sasuke was still as smart as he had been three years ago.

They stood at the gates with Tsunade, Kakashi, and the only other teams from Konoha that were participating in the exams. Sakura, Juugo, and Sai were accompanied by Yamato, but that was the only team from their own age-group. Technically Sai was an ANBU, but he wanted to take part in the Chunin exams to broaden his experience of emotions (according to Sakura anyway).

They would all be heading to Iwagakure across the dusty barren plains of Earth Country, and Naruto would meet them there in two weeks when they got closer to the village itself, and enter it with them. She didn't think poofing out of nowhere on the doorstep of the Earth Country ninjas was a very good idea.

"I'm just being precautionary – you tend to rush things Naruto."

Even Sasuke rolled his eyes at that, and she shut him up with a hug. After giving the same reciprocations to Ino and Sasuke (who gave her one of the strongest glares she had ever seen when she sneakily pushed a little of her wind chakra into his skin), she turned to the geezer toad waiting by the road.

"All right you old wart – lets go before Itachi decides I should go repack after all" she said, ignoring the protests from Itachi.

The old toad smiled at her, and unrolled a scroll from his back; after pressing his webbed hand onto the seal there, the world seemed to swirl as she was sucked through it to the mountain of the toads.

* * *

The journey through Fire Country took some time, easily three days to the border nearest Earth Country. They would have to travel through a few smaller countries he didn't bother to listen to the names of before they reached the wastelands of Earth Country.

It was at third nightly camp about ten miles from the border of one such country that Sasuke put his mind to work on Naruto.

He sat staring into the fire as the others around him conversed; Itachi was talking with the ANBU guards that were also accompanying Tsunade (once an ANBU, you never really stopped being one, and could still be called up for events such as this), and Ino was talking with Sakura and her team, so he was free to let his mind wander.

He knew for definite that there was something going on that she wasn't telling anyone about – she had all but told him the previous week, albeit very unclearly. His problem was figuring out what that thing was; he understood that she either didn't want to talk about it, or couldn't.

Knowing Naruto – being a living magnet for trouble – he would guess that she couldn't talk about it, but since he was trying to be optimistic, he left it an open option for now.

Half his problem was he hadn't been around to watch what had happened in his absence – he hadn't seen anything of all the irregularities that had occurred himself, and was going purely on eyewitness accounts from Ino and Itachi.

So far, he knew that her Sharingan had made sleep something of a problem, and that Kabuto had tried to kill her by using that and the Kyuubi against her. He also knew from what he had seen in grass country that she was much less inclined to restrain her hold on the Kyuubi now, and from Ino's chatter, that her Sharingan had grown again before 'Madara' had attacked them.

Kabuto definitely bothered him; Ino and Itachi seemed convinced that he was the one getting inside her head before her Sharingan had been sealed off, and so was Inochi, but he didn't remember Kabuto using any mental techniques. He understood how he could have made the Kyuubi turn against her – he had done that twice in the past – but to get inside her mind himself?

Maybe it had been Orochimaru instead? He would certainly know one or two mind techniques, that was his goal in his stinking eternal life wasn't it? It made sense, but that gave him no hint as to what was going on with her now. He filed the theory away for later, and concentrated on a different train of thought.

Ino had said her head had been a mess when she brought her back after Kabuto tried to kill her, and that even her father had been worried. He seemed to think that Madara had planned on all the problems it caused her too, but Sasuke shook aside that notion.

Ino had already told him he was very interested in the Sharingan, but he was also the leader of Akatsuki; he needed Naruto alive, so why would he do anything to help Kabuto even if they were in the same organisation? That was just plain stupidity on his part.

He might be interested in Naruto's Sharingan, but he didn't need her alive for that – he could easily take them after extracting the Kyuubi from her, so turning it against her made no sense whatsoever from that angle.

No – this probably did have something to do with Oto. It made a lot more sense – Kabuto and Orochimaru had tried to kill her – they were both interested in the body-snatching buisness, not the demon snatching one. If Naruto was unstable for them, it meant it was easier to keep hold of him.

But that still didn't explain how they got in her mind! He frowned and rubbed his temples – he really wished he had a first hand experience with all this.

"Sasuke, what's got your head so knotted up? It feels like an absolute bird's nest..."

Sasuke looked up from the fire to find Ino settling down on the log beside him – he still had a bit of trouble adjusting to her habit of popping up like that. He wondered what it was going to be like for Itachi when he signed that scroll.

"You said Naruto's head was messed up right? How badly?" he asked, turning back to the fire.

Ino was silent for a long time, and he knew there was a frown on her face as she though of a way to answer him.

"Naruto's head is like giant morgue... there's water on the floor that represents her chakra. Away from the Kyuubi's cage, there are rows and rows of the body-drawers you get in morgues, but they don't have bodies in them – those are her memories, her emotions... its not very bright in there Sasuke."

Sasuke didn't really follow the explanation, but he supposed it would get to the point eventually – he at least understood the drawer thing a little bit.

"The water is a yucky green mostly, and you can see things in it – I think I saw you when Naruto fought you in the valley when I went in after Kabuto tried to kill her– you had freaky wings at any rate – but... that was all Itachi told me about."

He nodded to show that he was somewhat keeping up.

"Itachi saw more than I did because he had to drag her out of four-tails mode – he said that some of them were all torn up – it doesn't sound bad like that, but its a reflection of her emotions and mental state. She had no control over it Sasuke, the Sharingan just drew them out of her when she slept, and she hasn't been feeling great..."

That had to be an understatement if his own opinions had been anything to go by – his Sharingan hadn't turned on him, but he was certain that the difference hadn't been so beyond his comprehension that he couldn't relate to it.

"The problem was that as long as she was feeling so... The Sharingan concentrated on the worst memories she could think of once it because that's what she felt, and it kept repeating them. It made her feel worse, and it was an endless circle. The Kyuubi was involved so that's why it was drawn out in her sleep, but that's based on her emotions too... "

That wasn't a pleasant notion to know – maybe things had been a little worse for Naruto in that regard than they had been for him?

"She really had no control until Tsunade and I came up with some halfway decent sleeping pills for dreamless sleep, but that doesn't help because we need our dreams to work through things – Naruto wasn't dreaming, so it was really just packing them away for later. She wasn't working through them by herself either...

It was a no-win situation for her no matter which way the pendulum swung then? God, he knew it was bad, but Ino was not really giving him much chance to hope here.

"In any case, she seemed to be doing all right, even after we met you in Rice Country. We knew she wasn't perfect, she's only human, but it seemed to settle down..."

But it didn't. Naruto probably only got more desperate after that – he remembered her talking to Tsunade about Deidara, and while he had known that the man was more trustworthy than he had appeared, Naruto hadn't known that. It was a very dangerous thing for her to trust him, or even take his word like that when – to her – he had been one of the people trying to kill her.

He remembered going back to her apartment after she had almost killed him in the same office – he knew she had been holding back all day, it would be a lie to say he hadn't been putting up a public face himself, but... They hadn't moved from that spot on the floor for hours. He had hardly had the space to breathe.

God, he had been naive to think that things were going to be the same when he got back - this was not the same. The only sameness he could see was the way things seemed to be so chaotic again, and once again, he had no clue as to what was going on with Naruto.

"Sasuke, I know you still have few things to get used to again, but Naruto... she'll work it out."

Sasuke wondered if he should tell her that something was going on again, but decided against it. Ino didn't need to hear his paranoia unless there was any firm basis to it, and he didn't have that yet. He didn't even know what he was looking for, and there was no point in drawing her out of her happy cloud for something that may just be paranoia after all (though he doubted it was paranoia).

He wouldn't tell Itachi just yet either – he had been the one worrying over her for all this time, he should be able to just have some time on the same cloud as Ino. Naruto was his sister too, and he had a much more vested interest in making sure she wasn't nose deep in trouble.

He would handle this by himself – he was the one responsible for this mess anyway. Juugo had banished most of the guilt, but it still crept up when he thought about how easy it would have been to just call the ANBU like he had been trained to instead of letting pride get in the way.

He didn't know what he was looking for, but he was going to fix it all the same, and with any luck Ino and Itachi wouldn't know anything was wrong in the first place.

* * *

"You want us to go where? ..._Iwagakure? Are you stupid? We can't hide in Iwagakure – there's no plants there!_" Zetsu snapped as the order was comprehended by the singular, twin minds in horror.

"You can use the ground can't you?" his companion asked irritably.

"_Not in Iwagakure!_ ...We cant hide there as well, and it takes up more chakra because of the type of ground" they muttered in reply.

"But you can still go? Good – I don't have anyone else to send, and I have buisness setting things up in Kirigakure. Naruto will know where to wait, all you have to do is show up and give her instructions" the man instructed.

Zestu watched as he poured eye-drop after eye-drop onto his eyes; he had been doing that a lot lately. No matter how many times he replaced them, they always began to wither away. They knew this was important, they had spent months waiting for this, and they could wait any more – he was running out of eyes, and the plan wasn't going to work without his eyes...

They still didn't want to go to Iwagakure though.

"Zetsu if I could send anyone else, I would, but there is no one else. Hidan is heading for Sunagakure, and Kakuzu is busy in Kumogakure before they both move for Takigakure, Kisame is getting ready to start things in the smaller villages, Deidara has handed in his resignation, and that useless lump Orochimaru is still sorting out his end of things!"

"Don't yell at us – blame the geology of Earth Country not us... W_hy don't you send Pein or Konan?_"

"Pein and Konan are needed to make sure Orochimaru does his job – he's very upset that Sasuke has escaped, and if he isn't watched he'll start a manhunt. I need Sasuke where I can get my hands on him if Naruto starts to falter – she's been without my influence for nearly three months. She'll have done something try and get out of this without breaking her own word..."

Zetsu couldn't help but sympathise with him; the sealing of the girl's Sharingan had been an unexpected drawback. It meant that the girl had more time to get her thoughts in order, to stabilise. It would take effort to get her back under their thumb now that Sasuke was back, and it was best to have a minion inside the village to do the work. It kept suspicion away from them, even if it probably was easier to do it themselves.

"Fine, we'll go to Iwagakure..._ We want a Jinchuriki to eat for this though..._"  
"Just make sure you get there in time" their companion grunted irritably.

* * *

Naruto was glad she had paid attention to Jiraiya's mumblings when they had been training; it meant she could eat food suitable for human consumption once she had thrown up the frog food before training.

She could have just eaten it beforehand instead of the frog food, but that would have been an insult to Shima's cooking, and the way the toads all raved about it, it was probably very good to them, so she forced it down, and threw it up later.

Fukusaku didn't seem to mind – apparently Jiraiya hadn't been able to stomach the food for very long either. None of the trainee sages had, if he was to be believed.

She had already been here for a week, and she was beginning to get this sage mode malarkey with out any outwardly remarkable problems (Gamakichi had to help explain some things, but she was got there eventually). One thing she had found very useful about the place was its huge library of books and scrolls.

When she had told Fukusaku she was trying to decode some scrolls (he had asked what she kept scribbling after the evening meal near the beginning of the week), he had disappeared for an hour. He'd returned with a whole treasure trove of sealing books and papers and all sorts of other equipment that just didn't exist in Konoha (they weren't so big on seals now that the wars had calmed down).

Like a huge stamp for making a seal that would store writing in minute form, leaving more space on the paper – making the seal alone was fiddly, never mind a stamp for it, and she had hunted the other villages for one with Jiraiya, but they just weren't used or made any more, and they were too valuable to sell.

The environment was almost perfect for studying the scrolls – no wonder Jiraiya had spent so much time here. She had finally managed to translate the arcane alphabet now that she didn't have any distractions (like Sasuke, or Ino freaking out about being married), even if all she got out of it was a riddle.

She hated riddles – why she hated riddles when they were the most basic formula of seals (it was the first rule in the idiots introduction book she had given Sasuke), she would never know, but when they were set out in almost legible writing in-front of her, she always wound up wanting to tear up the paper they were written on with her teeth.

She glared down at the short lines that had come from months of effort in an attempt to find a hint in their lines on what in the name the seven hells they were talking about;

_'When this earth stagnates take new routes,  
Twice overlooking comes new appreciation,  
And patience abate, but heed it true,  
With regeneration comes new condemnation.'_

That was it! That was all she had been working her ass off trying to translate and decode for almost half a year! Four lines of garble! From at least five scrolls! She knew it was talking about the Sharingan, but she didn't have a clue as to what it meant. She wasn't certain she had decoded the last word of the first line right either.

She had decided on _'routes'_ but it could just have easily been _'roots'_. It didn't seem to be complete though, as if it was only part of the whole explanation. She'd have to have another look through the scrolls to be sure, but she had the feeling she was about to be sent on another goose chase.

She glared at the piece of paper; stupid riddles. She rolled up the scrolls and sealed them away into a storage one, before digging out the one scroll on an actual technique she had taken with her; the Hiraishin. She had been going over it since Sasuke had come back, and she was certain that without interruption she might even get to the stage of trying it out – Kakashi had given her all the kunai he could find on the sly for just that.

Deidara had been having problems with it for a few years had he? Well it had taken Jiraiya a few months to get the hang of the Rasengan. She had finished that in about a week if she included the help from her clone, and she had completed it - she was working on getting her time spent manipulating the wind chakra with her clone lower though.

The Hiraishin couldn't be that hard, could it?

* * *

Naruto fell back in exhaustion as she appeared on the ground beside the kunai Kakashi had given her.

Apparently the flying thunder god technique _was_ that hard; she had finally gotten the theory down after almost another week, but the practice was another matter entirely. She had used it about five times, and now she had almost completely drained her own reserves.

She remembered Ino asking why her father had been admitted to the hospital for chakra exhaustion so much when they were nosing through hospital files, well now she had an answer for her. Hadn't her father used this against about fifty ninja at regular occurrences? How much chakra had the man had?

Kakashi had told her her own reserves were huge, but they had been almost full! Was this the problem Deidara had encountered? No wonder he had still been working on it when he had left that second note!

Half the problem for her was getting enough chakra into the kunai; it wasn't supposed to take much, but the seals had to be stabilised before they vanished, and she only had a certain amount of time to do that once she had activated the kunai, thrown it, and started the second half of the technique before it was no longer useful.

She couldn't keep her chakra that well controlled and manage all that yet – it made her wonder how long it had taken her father to come up with the technique. He didn't always use the kunai with the pre-made tags according to Kakashi, he could just create the seals with his fingers.

It put her own sealing to shame; she hadn't even started the basics of that yet, and her dad had made a time-space technique with it? This was one of the few times she would have considered using her Sharingan to copy something; if she could just see it being used, see the mechanics, it wouldn't nearly be so hard!

Sure Deidara had used it once or twice, but she hadn't really been paying attention then, so she hadn't seen the mechanics of it – she did remember that Deidara had not used kunai either, and that made it all the more galling that she was still stuck with the draining things.

At least she didn't have to worry about sage mode now – she had gotten a hold of that a couple of days ago. All she had to do know was learn the kumites that went along with it. It really was amazing, and she wished Jiraiya had been around to teach her some of it himself.

She couldn't wait to see what Tsunade's strength was like with it, but that would have to wait; Fukusaku had already scolded her for chopping three of the mountains in half with the Rasenshuriken (a little more time, and she wouldn't need sage mode for that at all), and she didn't want to hear that lecture again.

There had been a bit of a stumbling block when the Kyuubi had been less than inclined to share residency with Fukusaku, but she had had some sharp words with the stupid demon about that.

Most of it had been revolved around how it was his fault for not warning Itachi clearly about Madara, and that sage mode was going to help get rid of the infernal man.

She had also promised it that if he didn't promise to stop making her training more difficult than it needed to be and start co-operating for a change, then she would just force him to do it with her Sharingan. It had actually laughed about her finally growing some claws before agreeing, but didn't change the fact it hated her guts.

After that, Fukusaku had no problems getting a footing on her shoulder – it felt weird to have the tiny frog on her shoulder, all mixed up with her skin and things, but after a few sessions, it was barley noticeable. Shima joined in afterwards, and it had been better to keep her balance with an even weight distribution on her shoulders.

The only downside to that was that her Sharingan was now openly revealed, and she was certain that if she didn't tell Tsunade, Fukusaku would, so she would have to tell Sasuke and the others when she met up with them tomorrow.

Oddly, her sleep wasn't nearly as bad as it had been despite the return of the stupid thing; she had suffered from a restless night or two, but nothing so drastic as before. Maybe it was because Sasuke was back and, thanks to her own stupidity, there was certain permanency to that.

Whatever the reason, she didn't feel like she had anything to worry about just yet; she hadn't heard Madara's voice at all since her Sharingan had returned, and while that was not a cause for celebration, it certainly gave her peace of mind for the Chunin exams.

* * *

Sasuke threw _'The Idiot's Introduction to Sealing'_ back into his backpack with a glare.

Did those things have to be so fiddly? Why did you have to link so many of them up for just one seal? He had tried the simple exercise to make an exploding tag, and now his hair looked even worse than usual because along with being utterly untameable at the back, it was singed.

He didn't realise so much work went into those things till he tried to make his own, and he had a new-found respect for the poor suckers who made the things in mass. Naruto made her own, but he had never paid attention to just how fiddly they were.

Just one error in the symbols, or words, and it would go up in flames! He glanced back at his recent attempt and frowned; he had followed the instruction in the book, and he had practised all the seals involved before he even attempted the thing, so why had it blown up in his face?

He couldn't see anything wrong with it – sure it didn't have that red border like the manufactured ones he used, but it was handmade. Not working, but still handmade. He used different parchment, so there were bound to be differences like that. Naruto used three different types of parchment for hers!

"Itachi, what's wrong with this thing?" he asked, dangling the evil piece of paper over the page of Itachi's book on cooking basics (it appeared he was not the only one who had come along with homework).

Itachi stared at the paper for a few moments, and a similar frown met his face.  
"I can't see anything wrong with it; the chakra reception seals are all in the right place, and the ignition seals are all correct..."

They were so busy frowning over the failed paper bomb that Sasuke didn't even notice Naruto until her arms were folded on top of his head and, her chin resting on them, she had peered at the failure and immediately found the problem.

"You forgot the base containment seal you idiot – there's nothing on there to keep your chakra in place, so it just blew up the minuet you put your chakra into it. How the hell did you forget them? That the second thing in the book!"

He pulled out from underneath her arms, turning to stare at her in surprise; she immediately pulled him into a suffocating hug before doing the same to Itachi.

"When did you get here?" he asked, still a bit surprised by the early appearance.

They were ten miles from Iwagakure, camped out on the desolate flat earth deserts that seemed to be unending. Naruto hadn't been due to show up for a few hours yet, despite the growing darkness.

"Ten minuets ago – I have most of sage mode down pat now, and I got the hang of the kumites earlier than planned. God that place is so quiet – I managed to get some work done on those damn scrolls there! Fukusaku dug out a seal containment stamp! I almost want to go back... I got the time of my clone on the Rasenshuriken down up there – I can throw it now too, so I can use it! Have you seen Kakashi? I need to talk to him about a new control exercise so I can use that damn Hira-"

Sasuke pulled the front of her dress (the blue one today) and dragged her lips onto his own, before promptly letting go before Itachi could complain _('Just because I don't care doesn't mean I _want_ to see you lip locking with our baby sister')._

"Shut up and tell me what's wrong with this thing before you start going nuts. What did I leave out?" he asked, dangling the seal in front of her.

She rolled her eyes, and sat down own the ground next to him; he smirked internally. Now that she was fully intent on giving him the lesson straight from the beginning, he could totally monopolize her time. He was all for sharing, and he knew she had other things to do, but he hadn't liked the two week separation at all.

Spending three years apart made him a little clingy, and judging by the tiny twitch at the corner of her mouth, she didn't really object.

"You didn't even _read_ the second chapter did you? If you don't put a base containment seal across the whole piece of parchment, all the timers and ignitions just go off as soon as chakra hits them!" she admonished, pulling the book from the top of his backpack, and shoving the relevant page under his nose.

He was actually baffled at that – it was a picture of that border that she was pointing at. That's what that was? He thought that was just a printing quirk – they were always a different colour.

"That's what that is? I though that was just for the mass produced things..."  
"No! I told you not to skip pages! I know it's boring compared to normal techniques, but if you skip bits in sealing you can blow your arm off! If there was more interest in sealing more ninja would die from a botched seal than they would from an element technique! Read it now!"

He had the sense to do as instructed once he had heard that; Naruto in the meantime, examined the rest of the failed bomb (his ignition seals seemed to pass, but the language and snarls that came out of her mouth when she checked his timing seals was awful).

"Did you even think about how long you wanted the wait from activating the seal to the explosion itself to be? These time seals last half a second Sasuke! Either read that thing properly the first time or get some glasses! You have a three second wait time for this! No wonder it blew up so quickly!"

Maybe he should have read that book more closely; he didn't really care, and it didn't matter, because Naruto had pulled it from his hands, and started him right back at the beginning herself. She had completely forgotten about doing anything else until he could make his own exploding tags.

He intended on making sure it was a somewhat lengthy process.

* * *

Iwagakure was an odd village, in Naruto's opinion.

All the houses were built out from rock crags and boulders, and the huge pinnacles of rock were far higher than the highest buildings of Konoha. They were all interconnected by bridges of rope and wood, though in some places those seemed to be made from rock too.

She couldn't be certain of it, but if they had both been on equal ground, she would have guessed that the buildings were as high as those in Kumogakure (it only held the advantage of altitude after). The Tsuchikage's office was, typically, in one of the largest, highest buildings, and it was to there the small party headed first (besides Yamato's team, there were only two others accompanying them).

Tsunade wasn't going to be the only other Kage in attendance at these exams – all the leaders of the five major countries, as well as the leader of Takigakure were coming at the request of the Raikage to talk about the Akatsuki.

They were shown up the stairs of the strange rock building and Team Seven immediately felt claustrophobic in the firm rock halls.

After a few moments of watching the walls as they passed, Sasuke let out an unwholesome shiver, and glared at the rock. It was easy to see where his sudden distaste of cave-like structures came from – his imprisonment in Otogakure. Ino was used to openness from her own clan, and the walls and darkness reminded Naruto of more than the of the Kyuubi's cage.

Team 7 did not like Iwagakure upon first arrival at all; another problem, Naruto found that people tended to stare at her too, examining her face suspiciously. She was glad to see a few blondes in the crowd (it meant those creepy rumours were just creepy rumours after all), but she didn't look that much like her father did she?

They were escorted into the Tsuchikage's office by rounded man with a big nose, and then they were greeted with their first sight of the Tsuchikage. He was a tiny man, and his head barley made it over the top of his desk. His hair was white, in opposition to the third Hokage's grey, he had a large moustache and a big nose.

He peeked out over his desk, and hopped down from the pile of cushions that had boosted him on his chair, before making his way around the desk to greet them.

"Welcome to Iwagakure; my name is Onoki, the great fence-sitter of Iwagakure! I presume you are the delegation attending the Chunin exams from Konoha?" he asked.

He stick a gnarled little hand out to Tsunade. Naruto barley noticed; she was busy peering at the guards in the corners of the office surreptitiously. She could feel another demon in one of them, or in one of the guards out of view. It wasn't one of the bigger ones, but it was bigger than Yugito's... which one was it?

"Don't state the obvious old timer – I never thought I'd see you in that chair. Haven't you got around to retiring yet? I would have thought your hips would have given out on you by now..." Tsunade asked, but took the hand and shook it all the same.

"Bah! I have at least ten more years left in me! Well, hurry up and introduce me to your teams Slug Girlie – I like to know who's in my village" the man waved the matter off, turning with a curious, intelligent eye to the teams accompanying them.

He seemed to notice her acute examination of his guards, and she quickly decided not to maintain her interest; it really wouldn't be a good idea for her to annoy this little old guy. He quickly went through the teams, before finally settling his gaze on her own.

"Well, well, well, this _is_ quite the bunch – your achievements alone have made you quite infamous Mr Hatake, but I'd recognise an Uchiha and a Yamanaka anywhere, and this blond girlie... something about that one strikes me as oddly familiar too..."

He turned back to Tsunade with an amused grin on his face, before turning back, and asking the three of them to introduce themselves.

He raise an eyebrow at Ino when she introduced herself.

"Aren't you married to that Itachi kid?" he asked – Naruto swore she felt Itachi stiffen at the kid comment behind his ANBU mask

"What's that got to do with anything?" Ino demanded with a grate building up in her teeth.

"Nothing at all – its just odd to find a ninja who's married in Iwagakure. No use for all the legal mess – what about you boy?"

He turned then to Sasuke, blatantly ignoring the maddening irritation building up in Ino (she had forgotten that she had used that exact argument only a few months ago herself). Sasuke introduced himself quietly, trying to be careful even mentioning his name – it was something that seemed to meet the little old man's approval.

"Prime candidate for Orochimaru's body snatching – I've heard of you too." he noted, giving him an odd look.

Then he turned to her, and Naruto was surprised to find she was actually a little nervous – this man had an almost friendly welcome, but he was no third Hokage, and she didn't really know how he was going to react to her name (now that it had come out in Konoha there was no point in hiding it).

"And you blondie? What's so special about you?"

Naruto noticed one of the guards behind the desk giving an involuntary glance through his mask in her direction; that was him. He was masking his chakra so well he would have been invisible had she not been directly in front of him, but that was the Jinchuriki, and he knew she had a tenant of her own.

"My name is Naruto Namikaze – your ANBU behind the desk and I have certain similarities" she replied.

Tsunade had already told her not to lie about being a Jinchuriki – the other Kages were being accompanied by their own, and trying to hide the fact was not in their best interests.

There was an agreement amongst the Kages that, for the sake of this meeting, they didn't keep quiet about Jinchuriki for a change. She did receive a nod of approval from Tsunade for not mentioning the Kyuubi amongst the newer teams of this years Genin though.

The Tsuchikage's face remained perplexed, before he glanced to the man behind the desk; the ANBU gave her a quick glance again, then nodded at his superior. The old man then broke out into inexplicable laughter.

"I knew there was something odd about you girlie! You've been as tenses as a fine-tuned trap since you walked in! Can't say I blame you, but you can relax – no-one cares about that name any more. Besides, Minato wasn't bad for a green-horn. Even I'll admit he had a decent head on his shoulders, even if he was the bane of my existence during the war... That damn Hiraishin..."

"Err... thank you?" she replied, utterly perplexed by the man's reaction.

"Should have know I suppose... He's staring right our of your damn skull..." the old man muttered.  
"Actually, I've been told my eyes are more like my mother's" she corrected, getting another nod from Tsunade.

Normally that would have got her ears yelled off, but given that so many Kages and Jinchuriki were gathering at these exams, it couldn't be avoided. She didn't know for sure if the Tsuchikage knew who her mother was, but there was a high possibility of it. Especially if she used her Sharingan in the Exams (which was likely).

"Roshi! Take that mask of and introduce yourself!" the old man barked, seeming not to notice her words.

The man in the ANBU uniform removed the mask, revealing a middle aged man with bright red hair and moustache, and an odd head band not wholly different from Yamato's. He walked around from behind the desk, and extended his hand in greeting.

"Fuu has mentioned you a couple of times, its nice to meet you in person" he greeted.  
"She does have a habit of talking a lot doesn't she?" Naruto grinned.

"You have quite the team Mr Hatake – I'll be watching their efforts rather closely" the Tsuchikage informed Kakashi with an incredibly impish grin – had it not been for the wisecrack-tone in his old voice, she might have mistaken it as malicious.

Roshi gave her a tiny reassuring smile beyond the man's view and she relaxed a little; with all the caves and this weird old Kage in charge, the Chunin exams were going to be interesting or the death of her.

Although it was more likely to be both.

* * *

_**Update again. Things are starting to move again, and now you know what Naruto was poking at with that note^^ **_

_**Sasuke is certain he's noticed something that the others haven't, but he's still floundering around in the dark, and Ino is still oblivious. She has noticed something thanks to her trip inside Naruto's subconscious though. Just not enough to suspect everything. Things will start to speed up though, and loose plot ends will be tied together within the next few chapters :)**_

_**Hope you liked the chapter.**__**  
Nat.  
xxx **_


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